David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. The motion I tabled today is very specifically regarding the closure of the community welfare office, CWO, in Tramore, County Waterford, but there have been closures elsewhere in Waterford as well. The CWOs in Tramore and Cappoquin in County Waterford are to close but we are also going to see the closure of clinics in Dunmore East, Kilmeaden, Portlaw and Clashmore. We are seeing a withdrawal of community welfare services from small towns and rural villages and areas in County Waterford.

The Minister will know the individuals who avail of benefits under the community welfare services are those on the lowest incomes or social welfare. It is regrettable, unfortunate and wrong that the Government is closing down services available to those people in their own areas. It is forcing them to travel into Waterford city for appointments to see community welfare officers at a time when it is almost impossible for people in Waterford city to get an appointment with a community welfare officer because of the very narrow time slots available in the first place. The Government is going to make a difficult situation for people in Waterford city even worse by adding to the list of people who seek appointments with the community welfare officers.

The Government is closing down a service to people in rural areas. This is not just about CWO services. Many small villages and towns are losing post offices and Garda stations, there are issues around schools and now we are also taking away one of the vital services for those communities by closing the offices or by removing the clinics. It is not good. I attended the Convention on the Constitutional at the weekend and it was discussing electoral and political reform. One of the issues discussed in the context of reforming the system was the notion of localism and clientelism. One of the reasons we have a very high level of localism and clientelism in this State is that people are not getting a good service from the community welfare officers or from the social welfare system, not because the community welfare officers are not doing their jobs - they are - but because resources are so thin that they are not in a position to provide the public interface with people that they should.

People cannot get access to their community welfare officers or social welfare offices. If they try to contact any of the numbers they cannot get through. They leave messages but get no response, get deeply frustrated and they are forced to come to their politicians to get information from them. We are disempowering citizens. By closing these clinics and offices we are disempowering them even more. Worse than that, it will have a very negative impact on those rural villages and small towns which are already suffering. There must be a re-examination of this because, again, it will be dressed up as creating efficiencies and centralisation . In reality this is about more cuts, saving more money, and as a consequence, we are drawing services from the lowest paid in society and people on benefits who need to be able to talk directly with community welfare officers or social welfare officers to get information.

That is the context in which I am putting this motion down today and the question I am posing to the Minister. What is the rationale for closing those offices and clinics? Does she agree it will inconvenience people in those areas? Does she agree it will have a negative impact on people on low incomes and social welfare? Does she agree that those small towns and villages are already suffering from a reduction in services? Does she agree this is a retrograde step, as I am sure the people who live in those towns and villages find it?