Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party)
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Question 372: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will address the situation which has reached crisis level in the central rent unit in Santry, Dublin, due to the fact that staff have been let go with no provision in place to deal with the volume and backlog of rent allowance claims; if she will allocate sufficient resources to the rent unit to enable it to fulfil its role; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27544/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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1Late last year agreement was reached between the Health Service Executive (HSE) and unions representing the Community Welfare Officers that the staff of the Community Welfare Service (CWS) would transfer to the Department of Social Protection with effect from 1st January 2011 on a secondment basis initially. The period of secondment lasted for 9 months until the end of September 2011. During this period these staff remained employees of the HSE but were subject to the general direction and control of the Minster for Social Protection.

From 1 October 2011 these staff are transferred fully to the Department as civil servants and are accountable to the Minister in the same way as other civil servants.

I have been advised that a number of staff in the CWS were employed in a temporary capacity by the HSE in 2010 for a period of six months, including some of the staff in the rent unit in question. These contracts were subsequently extended to June 2011 from when they were gradually withdrawn.

In the context of the transfer of functions from the HSE to the Department a number of Transition Managers were appointed from within the Community Welfare Service, to work with the Department of Social Protection to oversee the transfer of the service to the Department. The relevant Transition Managers are currently in the process of examining the service implications arising from the loss of these temporary staff.

The backlog of applications for rent supplement is currently being processed and it is expected that there will be no backlog by the middle of October. Applications received up to the middle of September have been assessed for entitlement.