Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 20: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she is satisfied with the funding arrangements for community welfare officers outside Dublin and that the percentage of the cost of this service to her Department is proportionate to the time spent by CWOs on CWO work. [9275/09]

Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 54: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she is satisfied that the number of community welfare officers is sufficient to meet the growing demand for supplementary welfare allowance, mortgage interest supplement, rent supplement and other basic allowances. [9274/09]

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 75: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of community welfare officers funded by her Department; and her plans to provide funding for the recruitment of additional community welfare officers. [9273/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 20, 54 and 75 together. The Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) and Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) schemes are administered by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE) on behalf of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The operational arrangements for processing of applications and payment to qualifying individuals, is a matter for the respective community welfare division areas.

The administration costs of the SWA and BSCFA schemes are met by the Department. Funding for salaries of community welfare officers is based on the proportion of time they spend administering these schemes. This can range from 50% to 100 % throughout the country. Funding is provided centrally to the HSE which is responsible for the allocation of budgets to individual community welfare divisions.

In 2008 the department paid the HSE €58.3m in administration costs. This was based on the cost of salaries in 2007 plus a Department of Finance pay inflator of 3.74%. The Department funds 636 community welfare officer posts, 58 superintendent community welfare officer posts as well as 172 additional support staff.

The issue of increased demand on existing resources is a matter for the HSE in the first instance to prioritise workloads and re-deploy resources where necessary so that frontline services are maintained. The HSE is currently reviewing the allocation of staff currently engaged in the delivery of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme and associated income support payments. The Department is committed to working closely with the HSE in ensuring effective delivery of services and any request by the HSE for an additional staffing allocation will be given due consideration. However, the question of any increase in expenditure for staffing within the community welfare service above that currently provided, would have to be considered in the context of overall Government policy on public service manpower levels.

Extra staff have been assigned to the Department's social welfare local offices and process improvement initiatives are being implemented with a view to reducing processing times for jobseeker's claims. These measures should help to relieve some of the pressure on the Community Welfare Service.