Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Question 28: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the additional supports which will be given to community welfare officers in view of the increasing demands on the supplementary welfare allowance supports; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17039/09]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 30: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the action she is taking to ensure that there is adequate coordination between community welfare officers across their respective boundaries and to ensure that a seamless service is offered to clients. [16970/09]

Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 42: 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. [16987/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 28, 30 and 42 together.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent and mortgage interest supplement and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme, is administered by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE) on behalf of the department. The operational arrangements for processing of applications and payment to qualifying individuals, is a matter for the respective community welfare division areas.

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 reviewing the allocation of staff currently engaged in the delivery of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme and associated income support payments and looking at current work practices with a view to developing proposals that would reconfigure the current service delivery model. The community welfare service has one agreed national training programme for staff to ensure uniformity and co-ordination in the administration of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme and associated income support payments across divisional areas.

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 jobseekers claims. These measures are helping to relieve some of the pressure on the Community Welfare Service.