John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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618. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his plans to have social welfare payments to be made through the post office and discourage receipt of social welfare payments by direct debit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20801/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Social Protection provides two main payment options for its customers: payments in cash via post offices or payments direct to customer accounts in financial institutions.

The Department intends to continue to offer its clients the choice of being paid in cash at the post office or directly into an account in a financial institution. In certain cases, chiefly short-term unemployed recipients of jobseeker payments, payments are only made via post-offices. It is not proposed to further limit the freedom of customers to be paid directly into a financial institution if they so choose.

The Department of Social Protection pays over €50m per annum to An Post under a contract for cash payment services to welfare customers. This contract, which may be extended up to end December 2019, is very substantial in terms of its reach, value and impact. It demonstrates, in a very real way, the Government’s commitment in the programme for a Partnership Government to support the renewal of the Post Office network through a number of measures including the continued use of the network as a means of paying social welfare payments.