Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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100. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of WTE staff, by grade based in Department's central debt recovery unit as of 23 April 2025, in tabular form. [21457/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise because of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005 (as amended). Customers who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled.

The Department has a central debt unit of 41 staff that deal with recovery of overpayments from customers who are not in receipt of a social welfare payment. This unit is made up of 1 Assistant Principal, 4 Higher Executive Officers, 16 Executive Officers and 20 Clerical officers.

Customers, with overpayments, who are in receipt of a social welfare payment, are dealt with by the relevant scheme area or INTREO office, depending on the scheme or locality. All staff in these scheme areas and INTREO offices may be involved in recovery of overpayments.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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101. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of WTE community welfare officers employed by the Department as of 24 April 2025; and if he will provide same figures as of 30 April 2022, in tabular form. [21500/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The delivery of vital locally based Community Welfare Services (CWS) to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country is a priority for me and for my Department. The Community Welfare Service provides a flexible service to meet the different needs of people, who may find themselves in a financially difficult or vulnerable situation. It is a priority that this service is easily accessible and responsive to our client’s needs.

Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) are physically on site daily in over 50 Intreo Centres across the country where they are available without an appointment, during business hours, Monday to Friday. In addition to meeting people in Intreo Centres and Department of Social Protection offices, CWOs can facilitate an appointment within a short time of a person requiring such a meeting, at a mutually agreed location, including at the person's home. This reflects my commitment to continue to support the delivery of locally based services.

Due to the restructuring of the CWS service into a national service in 2022, it is not possible to provide comparative information relating to the number of CWOs prior to October 2022. The number of working time equivalent (WTE) CWOs engaged in the delivery of CWS nationwide as of 24 April 2025 and October 2022 are as follows:

I trust this clarifies the matter.