Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a recent delay in social welfare payments experienced by claimants at a location (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26833/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department is committed to providing a high quality service to our customers and to ensuring that all payments are made available on their due date. The Department offers a range of payment options to customers including payment at a local post office or to a bank or building society account or certain credit unions that have been authorised by the banking and credit union regulators.

While the Department accounts for a large volume of retail customers in individual post offices, An Post also provides agency services, including front line banking services and payment of utility bills etc., for other companies. The Department has been advised by An Post that, due to a heavy volume of business and demand for cheque encashment, Lucan Post Office experienced a greater than expected demand for cash late on Friday evening, 2nd September, and as a result was unable to deal with all of its customers pending delivery of a further remittance from An Post.

An Post made extra cash available at Lucan on Saturday 3rd September and again on Monday 5th September to deal with the higher than usual level of financial transactions. An Post has advised that some 20 social welfare customers who could not be dealt with on the Friday or Saturday were dealt with on the following Monday.

My Department is engaging with An Post to ensure that all our customers will be paid on their due date and there is no repeat of this situation. While apologising to customers who were inconvenienced by what happened, An Post has offered this Department assurances that measures have been put in place to ensure that this will not happen again.