My Department provides services to its customers in the New Ross area through the agency of a social welfare branch office. Social welfare branch offices are run by private individuals who are contracted by my Department to provide a limited range of services.
Under the terms of their contracts, branch managers are required to engage the necessary clerical assistance to enable them to deal efficiently with the work of the office and the levels of remuneration to branch managers are adequate to enable this to be done. The contracts, however, do not contain any stipulations regarding the actual remuneration levels of such staff which is a matter to be negotiated by managers and staff in the normal way.
The future role of the branch office service in the light of the changing nature of the service being provided at local level by my Department is under discussion with the Branch Managers' Association. The terms of branch manager contracts, including the appropriate staffing levels in branch offices in the future, will be among the matters to be considered in the context of these discussions.
