Vol. 417 No. 3
12 Mr. Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Welfare the additional staff and resources which have been allocated by his Department to service the new social welfare structure announced on 1 August 1991; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
A new approach to managing the delivery of social welfare services at local level is being implemented by my Department. The first stage of the improved service involved the establishment of regional management centres and a phased broadening of the role of my Department's employment exchanges. The regional centres are based at Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, Longford, Sligo and Waterford. Each centre is under the control of a regional manager who is based locally and who is supported by a management team and a network of area managers also based in the locality.
Having a more comprehensive service available locally will mean that employment exchanges, which traditionally dealt with unemployment payments, will be gradually transformed into complete one-stop-shops for social welfare purposes. In these new style centres pensioners, lone parents, unemployed people and families who are out of work through illness will receive the social welfare services, advice and any information which they may require.
The new regional management structure will mean: one-stop-shops for all social welfare customers; better services for employers; better controls to eliminate abuse of PRSI and social welfare schemes and new supportive relationships with the voluntary and community groups working in the area. To service this new structure, 45 additional staff were provided. Their grades are as follows: one principal officer; four assistant principal officers; six higher executive officers; 12 executive officers; eight staff officers; four clerical officers and ten clerical assistants.
In addition, several hundred locally based staff have been regraded. This change means that a more flexible approach to responding to the evolving needs of social welfare clients is now being implemented. It allowed existing staff to be deployed to assist the extra staff assigned in 1991 and each regional centre now has a full-time team in full operation.
Enhanced quality of services will require the continuing and increasing use of information technology. My Department is one of the most advanced public sector users of computer technology in Europe. Almost all local offices of the Department have access to a central computer system so that client information, in respect of people who call to my Department's offices, is readily accessible. Almost one-third, 14,000, of all weekly medical certificates for disability benefit purposes are now being processed locally and the extension of this facility will be accelerated by the new local structures.
A programme of upgrading the social welfare office premises is also under way. In recent years a total of 17 new offices have been provided and a further ten have been extensively refurbished. New offices are also planned for a number of other centres. My aim is to ensure that people transact their business with my Department in privacy, with dignity and in comfortable surroundings. This is being done in conjunction with the restructuring of the provision of services.
I wish to record my welcome for the one-stop-shop concept. We have heard similar statements from the Minister's predecessor. Is the Minister aware of the massive difficulties in the social welfare appeals office — launched about 12 months ago — which centre on the sentiments expressed here about the ability of the Department to move forward? Would he agree also that the quality of service and standards prevailing in, for example, the Navan Road, Thomas Street and Werburgh Street employment exchanges is unacceptable? Even in Victorian days, when they were first built, they were not acceptable. Would he agree that the 45 staff he has listed for the regional management centres will be sufficient?
As Deputy Byrne will be aware, this is the one area of State where the numbers being dealt with is continually increasing.
That is right; I wish it was the other way.
That is self-evident. The problem is so great that staff numbers may have to be increased. We have done our best to supply sufficient resources to the areas of need; not all the employment exchanges throughout the country are as I would like them to be but we are making progress in that regard. Since I became Minister for Social Welfare seven senior management posts have been created to ensure that the progress already under way can be accelerated, leading to a more fully integrated welfare system so far as income maintenance is concerned.
Undoubtedly, the Deputy can point to those places where everything is not as perfect as should be but, in turn, I could point to those offices which have been upgraded and where improvements have been made. Needless to say, that would not be of much help to those people who have to deal with those offices which have not been upgraded. However we are making progress and we will do our best to make sure that that progress continues. We have a building programme and we are spending a good deal of money doing the things to which the Deputy referred. We have done a fair amount and I hope that in the coming months and years we will be able to improve the facilities available in the way the Deputy would like.
It goes without saying that I support the concept of the one-stop-shop but what concerns me — I assume this is what my fellow Deputies are concerned about too — is the length of time it takes to show that this concept works. I fully appreciate the horrendous problems facing the Minister but given the rate at which the number of files is increasing and the extent to which files are moved around unnecessarily, I am sometimes put to the pin of my collar in tracking a file which may be moved around between Dublin, Galway and Athlone. I am sure the Minister would not mind, therefore, giving those of us who have an interest in this matter the opportunity to visit, semi-officially, a one-stop-shop which is working well. I would certainly appreciate the opportunity to be shown around such a shop so that we could see how claims are processed at first hand.
I would be glad to arrange such a visit for the Deputy. Indeed, I have not yet managed, since I was appointed, to get to see one of them myself but when I do I will bring the Deputy with me. I have not been able to visit any of them nor indeed any of the branch offices as I have been too busy. However I intend to make it my business to see both the good and the not so good places, to which Deputy Stagg and others referred.
