asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will provide a full-time social welfare office in Swords, County Dublin to cover the Swords and Fingal area.
99.
Written Answers. - County Dublin New Social Welfare Office.
98.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will make alternative arrangements for the people of Swords, County Dublin when signing on the dole as at present they have to stand in the open for hours.
It is proposed to take Questions No. 98 and 99 together.
I am fully committed to continuing the policy I have been following of providing new offices incorporating the most modern designs and technology to bring the services of my Department to applicants in the areas in which they reside. In that context Swords has been identified as one of the areas requiring a new social welfare office in order to improve the service to the public in that area. This new office will be provided as soon as resources permit.
I am aware that there were particular queuing difficulties at Swords Garda station on Tuesday, 5 December 1989. Every year at this time, the Garda are asked to carry out advance certification of unemployment for claimants. This is done to facilitate clients and to simplify administration over the Christmas holiday period. It also means that these clients will not have to call again until early in January. This year four forms had to be certified on the one day. This caused special problems of congestion at Swords Garda station.
While the pre-Christmas circumstances I have mentioned have aggravated the situation in Swords, difficulties in regard to queuing have occurred there which, while not on the pre-Christmas scale, give cause for concern and my Department is considering the possibility of introducing special measures to relieve the problems which arise in that location.