Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 361: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of staff employed by her Department in each social welfare office at the end of September 2007; the number of these engaged in front-line services; the corresponding numbers at the end of September 2008; the number of people signing on at the end of September 2007; the number signing on at the end of September 2008; and her plans to increase staffing levels to cope with the significant extra demand on services. [33788/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department delivers a frontline service through a network of 59 Local Offices and 65 Branch Offices countrywide. Local Offices are staffed by civil servants whereas the Branch Offices operate under a contract for service. The staffing levels at Branch Offices are a matter for individual Branch Managers. All decisions on claims are made in Local Offices.

The total number of staff assigned to Local Offices at end of September 2008 was 1,343 as compared with 1,280 in September 2007 and all of these staff are engaged in front-line services. Details of staff assigned to individual offices are set out in the attached tabular statement.

In 5 of the offices the numbers shown for September 2008 are lower than those applying in 2007. This is for a number of reasons including the point in time at which the staff numbers were determined, the loss of the PPS allocation function to a centralised location and staff vacancies at September 2008.

The Department's Management Services Unit, using a formal work measurement method, monitors staffing requirements across the Department including Local Offices. Determinations of staffing requirements undertaken on an office by office basis, was carried out over the period mid 2006 to mid 2008.

In addition to this process, because the increased number of claims for jobseeker payments the Department undertook a review of staffing levels in Local Offices in May and June of this year. This resulted in the assignment of an additional 31 staff to some 15 Local Offices. A further such review currently is being undertaken.

A number of other measures have been taken to deal with the increased workload, including extending the contracts of some temporary staff and the allocation of additional resources for overtime.

At the end of September 2007 the Live Register stood at 160,451 and at the end of September 2008 it was 240,217.