Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 810: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if her attention has been drawn to the strain being placed on community welfare officers in Kildare in view of the fact that their workload has doubled in the past 12 months; and if she will provide additional resources to the CWO to ensure members of the public are dealt with as quickly as possible. [11810/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Supplementary Welfare Allowance and Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance 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 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. 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.

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 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.