I move:
"That Dáil Éireann:—
deploring the chaos which has arisen in the Department of Social Welfare in respect of the payment of, and applications for, benefit and assistance;
recognising the totally inadequate level of staff and facilities in the Department; and
having regard to the unprecedented level of unemployment in the economy.
calls on the Minister for Social Welfare to resign forthwith in view of his failure, despite repeated requests, to manage his Department efficiently, and calls on the Government, as a matter of urgency, to provide all the resources necessary to enable the Department to discharge its responsibilities fully and humanely towards those who are the most socially and financially vulnerable in our society."
The Labour Party decided to table this motion having regard to the fact that during the past few months there has arisen in the Department of Social Welfare a situation which is almost unbelievable. Perhaps I have had more contact with this Department than any other Deputy has had. Down through the years I always found the staff of the Department and the various Ministers who were in charge of it to be anxious to try to facilitate those who were unfortunate enough to be ill or unemployed or old or poor but from the end of 1980 in particular some time towards the end of December when a change was made in the system of payment, especially payment of unemployment and disability benefit — week after week matters became worse. At first there were delays of a week but these delays increased to three weeks and then to four weeks and so on. Only this morning I received a letter from a lady informing me that although she has submitted 16 doctor's certificates to the Department, she has not received any benefit to date.
I can well believe this, because personally I have handled several hundred complaints. I have not passed these complaints to the Minister because I do not believe that Deputies should write to Ministers complaining about such matters. Such questions should be taken up with the Secretary of the Department and that is how I have proceeded in respect of these many complaints I have received. In some instances I got replies fairly quickly but in other cases I have not had replies for several months after making the inquiries while in other cases I am still waiting for replies.
I understand that the main cause of the trouble was that some time around the end of December a decision was made to change the system of payment. As a result, instead of paying applicants benefit as they had always been paid under their old social welfare number, when a man whose number, for instance, ended with a 1 would be paid by benefit 1 and, if it was 5, was paid by benefit 5 and so on, that system was completely changed. The decision taken was to pay benefit on the RSI number. I do not think it was too well thought out. For a start a doctor's certificate for social welfare has no space on which to put an RSI number. It does specify "insurance No." On the first certificate a person receives there is a space in which the RSI number can be entered but there is no space on subsequent certificates. The result is that most people omit to give the appropriate number although I understand it was advertised on radio, television and in the newspapers. Of course everybody knows that people who are sick or unemployed buy all the newspapers, look at television, listen to the radio and therefore should know.
When it was discovered that the appropriate numbers had not been entered on certificates apparently the Department had instructions to put such certificates to one side until the number turned up. As a result of this, immediately after Christmas, people discovered that they just could not receive payment. In one case the man's name — and I think I should use it because it is significant — was Oliver Plunkett and to make matters worse his address was Eden. Obviously the Department thought he was dead, was in Heaven. That man had five children. He had been employed continuously by one big firm of manufacturers since 1937. He had such a good insurance record he was able to tell me he had been out ill for three weeks in 1947 but had worked every week since. At the end of December he had a slight accident, went into hospital, applied for benefit and towards the end of February his wife telephoned me asking if I could arrange to have him paid. She had telephoned the Department on numerous occasions getting no satisfaction at all. I took their case up with the Department officials whom I have always found to be most courteous. They told me they would investigate the matter. I wrote numerous letters. Then the Department were to pay him; he was not paid, and there were constant telephone calls to me to the effect that no money had been received. Eventually I was told that it could be several months before payment would be made because there was such chaos in the Department. I said I thought I could improve on that. I put a question down to the Minister here which came up for reply on the following Tuesday. I had a bet with some of my friends that the man would be paid on the Tuesday morning, and he was.
Deputies putting down such questions in the House is one thing but one must remember all the people who cannot put questions down, who do not know the right way to go about it. There is no point in telling them they can seek assistance from the local health authority because, in country districts particularly, assistance from a health authority is still referred to as home help and they do not want to take it. Such people have stamped their insurance cards, want their benefit, and insist on receiving it. I heard the Minister on the radio assuring all and sundry that the situation was somewhat chaotic but it had been cleared up, everything was now all right, that people were being paid, that there were now very few complaints, that he knew, because all Deputies contacted him. I want to make it clear that I never contacted him. I do not know whether or not others did. I did a brief count on today's Order Paper and, if everybody has been paid, there are 55 oral questions to the Minister and 27 written asking him why people throughout the country have not received the benefit for which they have applied. I wonder what is the answer to that.