John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 9: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the date central support units to speed up the processing of welfare claims identified for Roscommon, Tallaght and Wexford will become operational; the reason for the delay in these units coming on stream; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23326/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As many local offices are very close to capacity as regards accommodating further staff, earlier this year the Department commenced the process of establishing a number of central decision units around the country. These units are being staffed primarily by the redeployment of existing civil servants from other Government Departments. The current remit of the units is to support local offices in the decision making process for jobseeker claims.

Four such units have been set up in Dublin, Sligo, Finglas, Carrick-on-Shannon and are currently operational. The units have been concentrating on deciding claims from the offices with the highest volume of claims awaiting a decision.

A further unit was established on 25 th May in Roscommon and another unit is to be set up in Tallaght in early July.

There is a significant training overhead associated with staff coming into local offices due to the complex nature of the jobseekers schemes. This is particularly so when a person is coming from another department and may not have any Social Welfare background whatsoever. While a certain amount of formal training is provided, the bulk of the training is "on-the-job". It takes many months for a deciding officer to get up to speed with all the various aspects of the schemes administered in local offices. In the meantime they rely on assistance from their more experienced colleagues to guide them in the learning process. Consequently, there is a certain amount of lost productivity while new staff acquire the necessary expertise of experienced deciding officers.

As I previously outlined the support units are being staffed by the redeployment of existing civil servants, therefore the Department can only establish such units in locations where sufficient numbers of staff can be sourced and suitable accommodation is available. The Department continues to liaise with other Government Departments in an attempt to secure staff to establish a unit in Wexford. As of now a date has not been confirmed for the establishment of this unit.