David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I support the recommendation. As Senator Power has said, any public representative who holds clinics or assists people with social welfare applications or applications for payments will inevitably have dealt with people who have been waiting for very lengthy periods for their appeal to be heard. Part of the problem is a communication failure between the appeals office and the person concerned or even between the social welfare office and the person concerned. I do not know how many times I have had to make representations in these cases. We are quite limited in what we can do. All we can do is make sure that a person's application has been properly looked at and that the officers have all the information they need. It is not our job to do their job. We just make sure that they have all the information.

I have found it frustrating at times when I have phoned the appeals office only to be told they are waiting on documentation, something that was not communicated to the individual. That is the reason a claim or appeal is held up. I commend the Minister on introducing the Intreo service which has some level of public interface, but it is not enough. The service has been rolled out and is a much improved service. Many people get very frustrated, however, when they go to the local social welfare office. They must queue up to find out information, but when they get to the counter they must deal with staff who are frustrated and under pressure. People do not get the information they need which leads to them feeling very distressed, and then they have no choice but to approach politicians about the matter. There is no privacy for them either. There is no real place, forum or space for them to go to and get the information they need. I am sure the Minister will agree that we must empower people and not have situations where people are forced to go to politicians. We must empower people in order that they can get the information they need from their local social welfare offices. Unfortunately, they cannot do so and then they phone the numbers provided which takes God knows how long to get through. When people do get through on the phone, they leave a message which goes into the black hole that is the answering service, one where 99% of messages are never answered. I took up this matter with a community welfare officer in Waterford. She told me that staff cannot respond to the messages because they do not have the time or resources to do so. That is the reason so many claims go to appeal.

It is also not communicated properly to people that they do not have to appeal directly and can call for a review of the decision instead. Such information would help people and should be made clear or put more simply to them. That is an option, but unless one understands it, the word "appeal" jumps out so people opt for an appeal and not for a review. Many improvements could be made in communicating that fact which in turn would improve the situation. The Minister has gone some way to change the system along those lines but a lot more must be done.

The logic behind this recommendation is correct. People should not have to wait such a long time to have an appeal heard. Some examples have been given of people having to wait 12 months or more for an appeal, which is an outrageous period to wait for a payment. Therefore, I support the recommendation.