asked the Minister for Social Welfare the research he is conducting into the improvement of the social welfare system; and the number of persons engaged in the research, their qualifications and the nature of their employment.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Welfare System.
18.
In October last I announced that the existing development sections in the Department of Social Welfare had been combined and reorganised as a new research and development branch. The staff in the branch comprises 16 officers all of whom are permanent civil servants. These officers have so far been engaged mainly on work in connection with the revision of the home assistance scheme and the preparation of a Green Paper on a national incomerelated pension scheme.
In addition, the National Committee on Pilot Schemes to Combat Poverty established in May, 1974, have announced that they will implement four pilot schemes, two of which are directly related to the question of improving the social welfare services. These two projects are a welfare rights project and a home assistance project. The committee's authorised staffing establishment consists at present of 19 persons, which includes five management personnel, eight research officers and six administrative support staff. The majority of the research officers being recruited will have a Master's degree in the social sciences.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary in a position to state when the Green Paper will be available? Further, can he state when the four pilot schemes referred to will be concluded?
I am hopeful the discussion document on pay-related benefits and social security cover for the self-employed will be available later this year. As the Deputy is no doubt aware, the National Committee to Combat Poverty have designed four schemes and I mentioned two of them because they were directly relevant to the Deputy's question. Three of the schemes were submitted to the EEC and have been favourably received by the Commissioner responsible, Dr. Hillery. The schemes will go ahead irrespective of whether they are passed at ministerial council level by the EEC. We are hopeful that the commission's recommendations on their implementation will be approved at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers which I understand is due to take place in June.
I wish the Parliamentary Secretary every success. Will he tell the House if the officers are on a full-time basis, totally committed to research in his Department?
They will be engaged in research and development on a full-time basis.
From the Parliamentary Secretary's reply, I understood there were two separate lots of staff involved. One is the research and development branch which has been established in his Department. Did he say there were 14 officers in the branch?
There are 16.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary give the House an indication of their rank?
There are two principal officers, two assistant principal officers, five higher executive officers, four executive officers and a clerical assistant.
That sounds like a reasonable complement. I assume it compares favourably with the research and development branches in other Departments, in size and status. The Parliamentary Secretary may recall that shortly after he took office I asked some questions about a fundamental review of the work and operation of our social welfare system as a whole and I expressed some misgivings about whether the Parliamentary Secretary had the staff at his disposal to carry out such a fundamental review. Is the Parliamentary Secretary satisfied that the research and development branch are capable of carrying out that fundamental review or will they merely be a section that will deal with specific issues the Parliamentary Secretary may refer to them, such as the pension scheme?
No. When the Government took over quite frankly I was horrified to find that not one penny was available to the Department of Social Welfare to carry out any kind of research. The Deputy has on previous occasions indicated his desire for and his recognition of the necessity for such research. We have managed to get an allocation now for the Department to engage in research and as I indicated the National Committee to Combat Poverty will also be engaged in a type of action research which can be very beneficial to the Department as a whole and need not necessarily be used solely in the single area but can be used as a guide to the future development of the services as a whole.
The Parliamentary Secretary has indicated that there are now 16 head of staff allocated to research and development. Does this mean that the total staff of his Department has been augmented by that 16 head or is it simply that those 16 people have been taken from some other work in the Department and labelled a research and development section? Have an additional 16 persons been added to the complement of the staff of the Department to carry out this work?
I do not want to mislead the Deputy. There has undoubtedly been some addition to the staff in Social Welfare over the last two years. I would not like to suggest that the 16 people are new recruits. The Deputy will appreciate that in any organisation with a staff of approximately 3,000 if one examines it closely one can find that people can possibly be utilised on work other than that on which they are engaged. Not only are those 16 people engaged on this work but, if it is found necessary, it is now possible, due to the allocation of funds for research which were not previously available, to engage outside assistance in the form of properly qualified specialists in a particular area to assist in this form of research.