Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to accommodate the community welfare officers who recently transferred into her Department and to realise the promised one stop shops. [36259/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The community welfare service and staff formally transferred to the Department of Social Protection on schedule on the 1st of October this year. Their transfer to the Department is a first and vital step in the full integration of the services provided by the CWS and the Department. Prior to their arrival and particularly in the nine month period of their secondment from January 1st this year, intensive planning has been underway between the Department and the HSE to make the necessary arrangements for the accommodation of staff and the integration of services. The various HR, facilities and administrative systems, such as payroll records and IT systems have now been put in place for the former CWS staff.

As regards the accommodation and the location of the community welfare service, while the staff will continue to be headquartered at their current base location/town, opportunities for co-location with other Department staff will be pursued, as appropriate. I can assure the Deputy that any changes that may be proposed in relation to geographical deployment will take account of the relevant provisions on staff deployment contained in the Public Service Agreement 2010-2014.

In preparing for the full integration of CWS services with those of the Department and also the integration with the FÁS Employment Services and Community Employment Programmes, the Department is currently undergoing a process of intensive planning for the establishment of the new National Employment and Entitlements Service, as provided for in the Programme for Government. The NEES Project Plan was approved by Government in July and was published in August 2011. The transfer of the community welfare service to my Department is therefore and integral part of the process of developing and implementing the National Employment and Entitlements Service (NEES).

The objective is to integrate all employment and benefit support services in a single delivery unit which will provide, the 'one stop shop' to which the Deputy refers for people wishing to establish their benefit entitlements, seeking employment and, or, advice about their training options. As part to the NEES project plan, a number of pilot 'one-stop shops' will be established in 2012 and following this initial pilot a phased roll-out of one-stop shops is planned over the period from 2012 to 2014. The pilots will enable us to develop and monitor the logistical and practical challenges in integrating all the employment and benefit support services that the Department now provides.