Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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691. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide an update on the plans to recruit 80 additional staff to community welfare services; if posts have been advertised; if recruitment has commenced; when it is anticipated that the full 80 will be recruited; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55058/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The delivery of crucial community welfare services to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country is a priority in my Department and recruitment has commenced for additional staff to be assigned to the Community Welfare Service. Recruitment will be through a combination of appointments from the Public Appointments Service (PAS) general service panels, internal promotions and expressions of interest from existing Department of Social Protection staff. It is anticipated that the additional resources will be fully in place in the early months of the New Year. In the meantime, thirty staff who were formerly Community Welfare Officers are being temporarily reassigned to the Community Welfare Service for a period of three months to assist with claims processing.