Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the action she is taking to prevent the extensive queuing outside social welfare offices; and the way she proposes to tackle this problem which is degrading to clients of her Department. [16991/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Live Register has increased to unprecedented levels as a result of the economic downturn that the country is currently experiencing. In many instances people begin queuing outside offices before they open in the mornings.

These queues include people making a claim for the first time and people signing the Live Register to show that they continue to be unemployed.

In order to deal with extensive queuing, we have introduced an appointment system for taking claims in offices with high volumes of claims. Under this initiative, when a person first attends at a local office to claim, they are given details of the supporting documents required together with an appointment to attend to have the claim taken. The appointment system has been introduced in 14 local offices to date and is being extended to three other offices over the coming weeks. This initiative has been particularly effective in reducing queuing in local offices and it has also helped improve processing times where the customer provides supporting documentation at point of claim. This initiative will be extended to a number of other offices over the coming months having regard to the volume of new claims at particular offices.

The signing arrangements for people who are already on the live register have been reviewed at a number of offices and additional signing days have been introduced where necessary. In addition, at some offices specific signing times have been allocated to claimants to reduce queuing times.

My Department has instituted a number of process improvement measures in order to improve the claim taking process.

In addition, we are reviewing the processes involved in administering claims for those who are working reduced hours i.e. part-time, casual and systematic short time. The existing arrangements are very labour intensive and it is envisaged that more streamlined arrangements which will benefit both customers and the Department will be introduced in the near future.

These improvements are part of a programme of streamlining initiatives being developed by the Department and it is intended that further improvements will be introduced on an on-going basis during 2009.