David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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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?

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton.

The Minister is conscious of the need to provide efficient and effective customer-facing services at local level for clients of the Department. As part of the relocation of community welfare services to Waterford, the frequency of clinics is being increased from three to four days per week and the number of staff available to these clinics will be increased, giving clients improved access to services there.

Staffing needs for all areas within the Department are continuously reviewed to ensure the best use is made of all available resources with a view to providing an efficient service to those who rely on the schemes operated by the Department. This includes meeting commitments under the Pathways to Work programme to provide opportunities, support and assistance to approximately 415,000 people on the live register by intensifying the Department's level of engagement with people who are unemployed and, in particular, those who are, or become, long-term unemployed.

It was in this context that a decision was made to relocate community welfare services from Tramore to Waterford following the retirement of a staff member. The relocation will take effect from 17 June 2013. In the interim, services in Tramore will continue to operate as heretofore. A key factor influencing the decision is the objective of ensuring continuity of service in the event of any future staff absences which would otherwise negatively impact on the quality of service. An important factor taken into account in the reconfiguration of services was the good public transport service from Tramore to Waterford, with a frequent bus service passing the existing community welfare service offices in Waterford and the main offices of the Department. There is also the facility for clients who are unable to travel to Waterford, for example, due to illness, to telephone the community welfare service in Waterford and discuss their case and, if required, the officer may arrange a visit to the client's home.

The relocation of a service coincides with a greater integration between the community welfare service and other locally based staff of the Department. This process will be further enhanced by the roll-out of a full Intreo service to Waterford later this year. I am aware from the launch in Sligo, which I attended with the Taoiseach, that the Intreo service is a fantastic facility. One should visit one of the offices. It interfaces with the unemployed and meets employers. It is a one-stop shop for people who are seeking work.

It should be noted that claims for supplementary welfare allowances are currently processed within a number of days where all the required documentation is in place.

David Cullinane (Sinn Fein)
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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.

John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. Speaking from the experience in County Sligo where an Intreo office has been opened, the demographics of the county are huge. We have a one-stop shop facility where the staff are very focused on the unemployed and it is a complete transformation. An unemployed person can walk in and get matched up with employers. I will certainly ask the Minister to roll-out the Intreo office as quickly as possible to Waterford because it is an enhanced service where people find the facilities. We have outreach offices all over the region but we have an enhanced centralised service in Sligo. Although it is a pilot scheme, it is extraordinarily successful. The way to solve the problem is through the roll-out of an Intreo office, with which the Senator would be impressed, which would more than compensate for the duplication of offices in rural areas. It means that if people have an idea or concept or want a job opportunity, they can go to the one-stop shop which is based on state-of-the-art technology. That would be less imminent in Waterford.