Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 20 Jun 1996

Vol. 467 No. 3

Written Answers. - Cost Savings.

John Ellis

Ceist:

53 Mr. Ellis asked the Minister for Social Welfare the five main cost saving exercises that he has sanctioned within his Department; the annual savings in each instance; and his current assessment of the specific areas that offer the greatest potential for cost savings in the immediate and intermediate-term future. [12930/96]

Minister for Social Welfare (Proinsias De Rossa)

The question of achieving savings in the schemes and services operated by the Department of Social Welfare is part of the normal day to day management of the Department.

As part of the modernisation of the Department there have been significant changes and improvements in the schemes and services over the last number of years. These have been designed to improve customer service and to achieve economies and efficiencies.

A number of pro-employment changes were introduced this year to help people move back to work and as a consequence reduce the demands on the unemployment payment schemes. These included: changes in the pay related social insurance, PRSI, scheme; family income supplement, FIS, changes; the extension of payment in respect of child dependants for people on unemployment assistance, to make employment more attractive; the extension of the back to work allowance scheme by 5,000 places, and the provision of 15,000 places on the student summer job scheme.

On the administration side a number of major changes have taken place in recent years viz: a new central records computer system was introduced to provide a more resilient and comprehensive database of all social welfare customers; a new computer system to integrate the processing of all unemployment benefit, unemployment assistance, disability benefit and supplementary welfare allowance claims; reduction of the requirement for unemployed persons to "sign-on" at local offices and improved procedures and processes; elimination of cash payments from departmentally staffed local offices; improved procedures to control abuse of social welfare system.

My aim is to provide, within available resources, an efficient, modern, responsive and effective service to members of the public who use the Department's services. The Strategic Management Initiative, recently launched by the Government, with its emphasis on delivering a quality customer service and ensuring value for money, will give additional impetus to this programme of improvement in future.