Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 210: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if the status of community welfare officers is being changed; if his Department is taking over the functions of community welfare officers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13601/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare scheme is administered by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive on my behalf. The commission on financial management and control systems in the health service, which reported in 2003, noted that over the years the health system had been assigned responsibility for a number of services which might be regarded as non-core activities. It recommended that the Government consider assigning non-core activities currently undertaken by agencies within the health service to other bodies.

The Government subsequently set up an interdepartmental group to examine this issue. The report of the interdepartmental group was accepted by the Government recently. The report recommends, among other things, that income support and maintenance schemes, together with associated resources, should be transferred to my Department. This would include community welfare officers and superintendent community welfare officers, senior managers and support staff. This particular initiative has been mooted several times in the past, by the report of the commission on social welfare in 1986 and by the review of supplementary welfare allowances by the Combat Poverty Agency in 1991, and is a logical approach to the provision of these services.

The changes arising from the decision will have major implications for my Department's existing services and for the future delivery of the supplementary welfare allowance. A departmental working group will be established to progress implementation of the transfer. I am confident these changes will be embraced successfully and will ultimately enhance the delivery of services to customers.

I am also confident that this transfer process can be carried out without any negative effect on the standard of service currently provided by community welfare officers, or in the important role that they play in addressing issues of disadvantage in the community.