David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

With respect, as the speech was written for the Minister of State I cannot blame him. If the issue was not so serious, the response would be funny. Justifying closing the offices and withdrawing the services on the basis that there is a bus service from Tramore to Waterford does not take into account the cost and an inconvenience involved in getting that bus. It does not just take a couple of minutes to jump on a bus and get there if one has children and responsibilities and if one is working. Life is being made more difficult for people in Tramore and other areas in Waterford to access to those services. To suggest that people can telephone their community welfare officers and get through is laughable because that is not the reality. People telephone the community welfare officers but get no answers. They leave messages which go into a black hole and there is no response back. That is the reality for the majority of people with whom I deal. That is the reason they end up coming into our clinics for us to get the information because they cannot get it themselves. Those individuals are being disempowered by closing these services. That the closure is justified on the basis of a bus service is laughable. However, it is not funny. It is a serious issue, as the Minister of State would accept.

I would agree with the Minister of State on the idea of a one-stop shop for social welfare and community services because we need to get away from disempowering citizens to empowering them. In Britain there are one-stop shops where one can discuss the details of one's case and get the information without approaching somebody else to get it. That is the type of system towards which we need to move. I repeat what I said earlier. This is a retrograde step for the people who live in those towns and villages.