Michael McCarthy (Labour)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Áine Brady, to the House and I congratulate her on her appointment. I was one of the first people to meet her on the day of her appointment and I wish her well in her Ministry. I know her brother, Deputy Tom Kitt, quite well.

I have raised the issue of the local social welfare office on a number of occasions in this House. To put it in its historical context, this matter goes back to two years ago. I declare an interest in that the late Mr. Kieran McCarthy who managed the branch office in Dunmanway was a cousin of mine. He died unexpectedly in July 2007. He ran that office very professionally. Since his death, the office has remained closed. The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has not made a statement as to whether its closure is permanent but as it is two years since it closed we must assume it is. However, I wish to hold on to any chink of hope that may exist.

This office provided a very important local service. We are all aware of the plight of the unemployed and, given that the rate of unemployment is now alarming, this issue is more urgent than it was when the office closed. Dunmanway is no different from any other part of west Cork or County Cork, or any other part of the country, in terms of unemployment figures. There was a high dependency on the construction industry in Dunmanway and it had just recovered from the loss of 119 manufacturing jobs through the closure of the company which manufactured surgical gowns. It also experienced and is in the process of experiencing the transfer of jobs from Dunmanway to Macroom in O'Donovan Medical, a firm making aluminium joints. A substantial number of jobs have been lost to the area although salaries will be retained in the local economy because people will not move. Nonetheless, a significant number of people will be moving out of the area.

The closure of the local social welfare office has caused considerable discomfort to people who have lost their jobs, those who need to access a local unemployment office and to meet an official over the counter, a person who is familiar to them, a person who can give them advice and assistance with application for a job-seeker's payment. I have been in the office on a couple of occasions and it is not very edifying to stand in a queue for social welfare assistance. It is an awful experience and more so in the current climate because of people's debt levels and responsibilities. Going from having a well remunerated job to unemployment is very daunting and traumatic and is a personal tragedy.

People in Dunmanway must now travel to other west Cork towns, Macroom, Skibbereen, Bandon, Clonakilty and Bantry, for social welfare assistance. There is no Luas tram in west Cork and unemployed people who do not have access to personal transport find it difficult enough to pay bills never mind finance transport. There is a bus service but unfortunately CIE thinks it is not worth while to make a bus service available in west Cork. It is cutting the service from Skibbereen to Baltimore, which is the harbour for the islands of Sherkin and Cape Clear. This is a controversial local issue because people depend on that bus service. There is no bus service that connects to other west Cork towns. There is only a limited service which people are happy to use but it is not the solution for those who are unemployed.

There is a premises and local expertise is available among the people who worked in the office previously. There is local demand for the service, which should be reinstated. I request the Minister of State to urge her colleagues in government to consider this matter. It would be a way of showing a commitment to the people of the area. The Government should acknowledge that the service was discontinued as a result of a tragic event, but that does not mean it cannot be reinstated. As a public representative, I have been monitoring the unemployment figures for the whole area, not just Dunmanway. I am sure that the Cathaoirleach has been monitoring his area. When the figures become available, we examine them and make a political case for upskilling and training to ensure that people do not become locked into the long-term unemployment that was the blight of this country in the 1980s. We need to avoid that situation recurring.

Making an overall judgment of the unemployment figures in my area is impossible. Since people are feeding into other social welfare offices, we do not have a particular set of figures. However, many more people need the service locally than needed it two years ago. I urge the Minister of State to consider the matter, which I raised in the House previously. The constituency of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, includes the area in question. I made the point to him that some of his constituents were using the service. Obviously, no one will travel from County Kildare to west County Cork to do so, but we must reinstate this important service.

Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Deputy Hanafin. I thank Senator McCarthy for raising this important matter. The Department of Social and Family Affairs delivers a front line service to its customers through a network of 62 local offices and 62 branch offices. The main services provided from these offices include jobseekers payments, one-parent family payments and a customer information service. The 62 local offices are staffed by departmental staff and the branch offices are run by branch managers who are employed under a contract for service by the Department to administer certain social welfare services to members of the public in their catchment areas.

Due to the sad and untimely death of the branch manager in Dunmanway, arrangements were put in place immediately to ensure continuity of service to customers. All claims originally catered for in Dunmanway were transferred to the Department's office in Bantry as an interim arrangement to ensure that payments were not interrupted. The number of customers involved was approximately 350 and arrangements were subsequently made to distribute the claims between five neighbouring branch offices in Bandon, Bantry, Clonakilty, Macroom and Skibbereen.

In cases where customers are living more than 16 kilometres from their designated branch office, their signing arrangements were changed to quarterly signing as opposed to the normal monthly signing arrangements. This means that these customers need only call to the branch office once every three months. Service to customers has not been interrupted by these arrangements and payments are continuing as they fall due. It is open to people residing in the Dunmanway catchment area who become unemployed to make a claim for jobseekers benefit or allowance at any of our offices convenient to them. Customers claiming illness benefit can forward medical certificates directly to the illness benefit section in Dublin or to any local or branch office. The service provided by the social welfare inspector in Dunmanway is being maintained. The office of the inspector is open to the public on Tuesday mornings and deals with any information queries.

As provided for in the Department's modernisation action plan, a strategic review of customer-facing services was undertaken in 2008. The purpose of the review was to determine what services will be delivered in the Department's front line environment in future. It was undertaken to identify the range of the Department's customer-facing services and related activities that would be most appropriately delivered in a front line environment, the locations from which these services would be best delivered and the layout of the offices that would enable their optimum delivery. Having considered the nature and extent of future customer-facing services, the terms of reference for this review provide, inter alia, for recommendations on the criteria to be used to determine the locations in which the Department should have a local or branch office presence.

The review noted that, given the significant ongoing changes as part of the channels programme, the Department's future service delivery model will be radically different from the current model. I will supply examples of some of the changes that will transform the service. A full range of alternative channels to include Internet, telephony and SMS services will significantly reduce the number of people calling to local and branch offices. The signing on process will be revised to take advantage of these services and will be based on customer profiling and risk assessment. An appointment system will be put in place to conduct a range of services, thereby reducing the footfall in offices.

Given the significant impact that these changes will have on customer levels as key criteria for determining the location of office presences, the Department will carry out a review of locations for services once the channel strategy is implemented across the local and branch office network. The Department is satisfied that the service being provided to people from the Dunmanway catchment area meets service requirements and there are no immediate plans to open an office in the town.

Michael McCarthy (Labour)
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I thank the Minister of State for her response, but I wish to point out a number of issues with her reply. While her earlier comments were correct, the terminology used, "were transferred", "were not interrupted" and "was approximately", was past tense. Given that this issue will be two years old next month, the 2007 figure of 350 will probably have doubled by now.

According to the Minister of State, it is "open to people residing in the Dunmanway catchment area who become unemployed to make a claim for jobseekers benefit or allowance at any of our offices convenient to them". The essence of my contribution is that it is not convenient for them. She also stated: "The Department is satisfied that the service being provided to people from the Dunmanway catchment area meets service requirements and there are no immediate plans to open an office in the town." While I accept this, the genesis of the issue is the reopening of an old office, not the creation of a new service.

I thank the Minister of State for taking the debate, but I will continue to raise the issue. Given its local importance, I cannot allow it to be fobbed off. However, I appreciate the Minister of State's reply.