John Kelly (Labour)

I am glad the Minister said in her reply that it was the theory because in my 29 years' experience as a community welfare officer the theory is never put in place in practice. When this is taken away from local involvement it will be a disaster. How does the gambler, for example, ring somebody in Dublin to tell them their wages have been spent on gambling? How does the alcohol abuser do the same? Who listens to them?

The Minister said local offices will provide assistance. They will not. They know nothing about this, except that they will no longer be dealing with medical cards. To which local offices is the Minister referring? Is she referring to the staff in the sections that dealt with medical cards after the community welfare officer? My understanding is that they will be redeployed to other posts within the HSE so they will not be there. As regards dealing with these matters online, it does not work. The telephone also simply does not work. The correspondence that will take place will be purely by letter. People will send in their application, receive a refusal and appeal it. It will be paperwork back and forth unless it is addressed.