Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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725. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if individuals whose local post office has been closed due to storm Éowyn and who have not been able to attend a neighbouring post office, will be allowed to collect any missed payments when effected post offices re-open; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3153/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department provides two main payment options for its customers: payment in cash at post offices (Electronic Information Transfer EIT) or payment directly into customer accounts (Electronic Fund Transfer EFT).

All EIT payments include a payment expiry date hard coded into the payment instruction. The life span of each payment varies depending on the social welfare scheme being paid. For example, payment expiry dates range from 8 days for Jobseeker payments to 90 days for State Pension payments. The vast majority of payments have expiry dates in excess of 20 days.

Following the impact of Storm Éowyn which prevented the opening of several post offices, An Post transferred the payments to an alternative post office where this was possible. In some cases, it is possible that customers will not have been able to collect their payments at either their normal post office or at the alternative post office organised by An Post. In these circumstances, no customer will be disadvantaged in these cases as my Department will reissue such payments for the customer to collect.

The Department’s advice for such customers is that they should contact a Social Protection office to inform staff of their inability to collect a payment. The Community Welfare Service of the Department is also available to provide an emergency payment in hardship cases.