Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim céad fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus táim thar a bheith buíoch de as ucht teacht isteach. The Minister of State knows that there was a movement of community welfare officers, CWOs, from the HSE to the Department of Social Protection in 2011 and 2012 with the Department taking over more than 900 clinics that CWOs would previously have undertaken. In 2012, more than 100 clinics were closed. The Minister maintained that the service had been enhanced with phone lines being preferable to clinics and CWOs visiting people's homes to meet them where that was needed.

We agree in principle with the transfer of CWOs to the Department and said so at the time. The restructuring of services where possible into one-stop-shops and the making of savings on rent costs was to be done in a way that would not compromise the accessibility of the CWO and the person who succeeded them in that scenario.This is the subject of my question. We had a particular concern in Connemara with the closure of a service in Carraroe and also the services in Oughterard and Spiddal being rationalised and moved to Galway city. The Minister at the time told us it was to provide for a streamlined and consistent service to the customer. The language used is interesting in that it is a customer as opposed to a client, and that anyone using the services of a CWO or a social welfare office is regarded as a customer. She also said the Department was intensifying its level of engagement with the unemployed, in particular those who are or had become long-term unemployed, and that the new Intreo service offers practical tailored employment services and supports for jobseekers, a model which is currently being rolled out throughout the country. It is acknowledged that there is an increased engagement with the unemployed so therefore one would imagine that more interaction would be needed with these former community welfare officers. We were informed that where the community welfare service had been restructured, alternative arrangements had been put in place to ensure customers - that word used again - are provided with ongoing access to the supports provided by the service and that in general this would mean that the frequency of available public clinics had been increased.

I note that Deputy Ó Snodaigh and other Deputies and ourselves at the time had raised issues around this because in rural areas where a service was being removed or moved to an urban centre, transport connections such as bus services were not available. For example, there is no bus service to Clifden, the nearest centre for people living in Carna, County Galway. Anyone wishing to go to the city would have to get a bus first thing in the morning and stay in the city all day until the return at night. I know from dealing with people through my office that people have been asked to attend at the centre in Galway on a number of occasions, for three or four days in the same week, to finalise their claims for supports from the Department of Social Protection. It has been said that in cases where people are not in a position to travel due to lack of resources or lack of transport, the Department would call out to those people and ensure they were provided with a service. The Department would initially endeavour to deal with those people by telephone or by post.

How many times in the past year have these former community welfare officers or officers of the Department of Social Protection gone out to Connemara to visit people in their homes? It is my understanding that the travel is the other way around, that people are being asked to travel to Galway or to Clifden to process their claims. This is sometimes not practical. For example, a person applying for a special needs payment may be in dire straits or may be finding it very difficult to make ends meet. It is an extra burden on such individuals if they are asked to incur travel costs and it is unfair. I am interested to know how many call-outs have been undertaken by officers on behalf of the Department of Social Protection to help people to process their claims, as was the practice previously with the community welfare officers.