Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 135: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the plans she has in place to ensure customer service is not interrupted during the dispute by her Department's staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24743/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU), the union which represents clerical and supervisory grades in the civil service, is currently engaged in industrial action in pursuit of a claim for the extension of flexi time bands in the Department. Initially, the industrial action commenced with the withdrawal of co-operation with the implementation of a new Time and Attendance (T&A) system by the Department. The implementation of the new system had been agreed in November 2006 as part of the Department's "Towards 2016" Modernisation Action Plan, progress on which has been the basis for pay awards under the Agreement. Industrial action was escalated with effect from 28 April 2008 to include the withdrawal of lunch-time service to the public at the Department's local offices and not answering telephones during the lunch-time period across the Department. Discussions at departmental level, in the course of which the Department made a number of moves aimed at resolving the issue, did not yield a positive result.

Following the intervention of the National Implementation Body (NIB), the parties were referred to facilitation discussions at the Labour Relations Commission (LRC). At the end of two sessions, on 29 May and 12 June, agreement was not reached. The CPSU escalated industrial action, with effect from 16 June, to include not answering telephones in all of the Department's offices and a ban on overtime. However, on foot of a statement issued by the National Implementation Body on 19 June 2008 and the agreement of both the Department and the CPSU to engage in further discussions in the Labour Relations Commission, the CPSU stood down the escalated action that had been in effect from Monday 16 June. In accordance with the recommendation of the National Implementation Body the discussions at the LRC are to be completed by 1 July 2008.

Pending resolution of the dispute the Department's local offices will be closed and telephones will not be answered during lunch-hour. However, apart from this, services are being provided as normal. Clients who may be unable to attend at a local office during current opening hours may continue to make application for various payments by post. Application forms are widely available at post offices, Citizens Information Bureaus and on the Department's website www.welfare.ie. It is not envisaged that the current dispute will lead to delays in payments, but the matter will be kept under review. I was reassured to hear the Assistant General Secretary of the Civil Public and Services Union, state in an interview on national radio that "nobody's payment will be affected" and that it will continue to be a priority that "nobody suffers in terms of payments".