Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 857: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps being taken to ensure that persons seeking to access social welfare offices here can have shelter while queuing; since it is a public office, that there is a toilet available for use by the public in the building; and the reason there is no external post box in some offices which would allow sick certificates to be hand delivered outside the limited office hours by working siblings of people confined to bed who have a claim to be processed. [33071/09]

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. This in turn has led to large numbers attending at our offices and the consequent delays that claimants are experiencing.

While it is not feasible in most cases to provide shelter for customers queueing outside our offices, a number of initiatives have been introduced to address the extensive queuing problem. An appointment system for taking claims has been introduced in a number of offices with high volumes. 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 make their claims. The appointment system has been introduced in 16 local offices to date and 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.

The Department has instituted a number of process improvement measures in order to improve the claim taking process. In addition, it is 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.

The provision of public toilets is now a standard feature in specifications for new local offices however there are many offices which do not have public toilets. Where this is the case, staff toilets can be made available to customers such as pregnant women, on request.

External post boxes are a standard feature in local offices. However in some cases these may be inaccessible after hours due to shutters which close over the main entrance door and the letter box. This issue is currently being examined with a view to resolving it without delay.