Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 27 Feb 1990

Vol. 396 No. 3

Written Answers. - Dublin Labour Exchange.

Jim Mitchell

Question:

153 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, in relation to the Navan Road labour exchange his attention has been drawn to the fact that of the 20 hatches at the exchange only six are used for signing on and only three for paying out; that in respect of the three paying out hatches at one of the three hatches there is a completely disproportionate number of persons assigned to the hatch when there are people at the other hatches; if he will make arrangements to open up a few extra hatches for paying out purposes; and if he will make arrangements to have an equal number of persons paid out at each hatch in order to avoid unnecessary delays for those awaiting payouts.

Minister for Social Welfare (Dr. Woods)

The public area at the Navan Road office of my Department is equipped with 21 hatches of which three are specially constructed to meet the security and other requirements of cash handling. A further seven are used exclusively for claims taking and information purposes; the remaining 11 hatches are used for interview and for signing-on purposes.

The physical layout of the office imposes constraints on the use to which certain hatches may be put in order to avoid the congestion which would arise from cross-queueing. Within these constraints, signing and payment arrangements are designed to spread the daily volume of business on an efficient basis between various hatches.

Having regard to the operational need to divide claimants according to type of payment, it is not possible to achieve exactly equal distribution of claimants between hatches. A recent survey of the office shows that the deviation from the average number of persons dealt with at any one pay hatch is minimal.

I recognise that the facilities at the Navan Road office do not match the standards which have been achieved at my Department's newest offices. The question of providing a new office designed to the most modern standards is a high priority with my Department and is being actively pursued at present. In the interim, my officials are reviewing the payment arrangements at this office to see whether the situation for the public can be improved in the short-term.