Vol. 569 No. 5
8 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she has taken to alleviate the effects of the recent industrial dispute at An Post on social welfare recipients; if all social welfare recipients who experienced difficulty as a result of the dispute have received their welfare entitlements at this stage; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17900/03]
44 Mr. Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the alternative payment methods which are or can be put in place for social welfare payments in the event of industrial disputes in the postal service. [17896/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 and 44 together.
My Department makes in excess of 54 million payment transactions per year on a range of payment schemes. In addition to payment at post offices, payment can be made by cheque or electronic fund transfer directly to a customer's bank or building society account. Currently, some 850,000 customers on longer term schemes have elected to be paid at post offices by means of a book of orders which are encashable each week at a post office designated by the customer.
A further 140,000 customers, mainly those on unemployment schemes, are also paid at post offices by means of an electronic or manual Postdraft which is issued to the customer's designated post office each week. Approximately 180,000 customers across all scheme types are paid by cheque through the post to their home address. Some 400,000 customers are paid by electronic fund transfer directly into their bank or building society account.
My Department has developed a wide range of contingency plans which, depending on the circumstances involved, can be put in place in the event of normal payment services being disrupted. In addition to these arrangements, An Post, under the terms of my Department's contract with it, has responsibility for providing contingency arrangements in the event of disruption to payment services at post offices.
The recent dispute referred to by the Deputy originated as a one day unofficial industrial action on Friday, 13 June and affected payment services for my Department's customers at a small number of post offices in County Cork. Arrangements were made by An Post for these customers to receive their payment at another post office in the locality on that day. On Monday, 16 June, the dispute escalated to a number of other post offices throughout the country affecting payment services for 2,500 social welfare customers. The escalation was for one day and arrangements were made for the customers involved to collect their payment at the offices concerned when they reopened the following day.
An Post plays a fundamental role in the delivery of social welfare payments on an ongoing basis and I look forward to its continued commitment to providing these services in the future.
I acknowledge the long standing willingness of An Post management, unions and staff to ensure that the impact of disputes on social welfare customers is minimised.
I am pleased the dispute has been resolved and that there was not too much difficulty in respect of the payments. In the context of An Post and the service it provides, I ask the Minister – and this will have to get through to the management and the unions – to ensure there is no disruption of services and that agreements entered into are worked out without the necessity for industrial disputes. Why is it that an agreement entered into in this case was not adhered to by management? Is the Minister aware of a specific commitment for feedback from management to union representatives as developments took place? Will she give an assurance that her Department will learn from the mistakes of the past, that full consultation will take place in future and that a proper mechanism will be put in place before action is taken on a unilateral basis?
First, I was not involved with the specific issue of why the dispute took place and, second, it was an unofficial dispute and, therefore, the unions were not involved. Had the unions been involved, additional contingency plans would have been available. In the main, I am happy that everyone who was entitled to a payment received it. That was facilitated. My Department has a contract with An Post which is very specific about facilitating customers with their payments. Unfortunately, it was one of these lightening strikes of which we were advised in the morning just as the cheques should have been paid out, but customers were facilitated and paid. My Department has many contingency plans which would enable a switch from one payment to another to be done very quickly through the computer system in the event of an escalation of any dispute. While the contingency plans are available, it would be difficult to change them within 30 seconds of the opening of a post office. Although the action was unofficial, we always learn from such disputes. Management facilitated the members of my staff in all the local offices when it came to payments for customers and no one was left without their formal payments.
As a rebel county TD, many of those affected by the first lightning strike were in my constituency. While I am somewhat reassured by what the Minister has said about contingency plans, both medium and long-term, she will appreciate there was a lack of information to react immediately as a result of which payments were delayed and people missed deadlines in respect of outgoing payments. I ask that the existing contingency plans be reshaped to provide an immediate response because people cannot be left in the situation that recurred. While I appreciate it was outside of the Minister's control and that of her Department, there must be a direct response as the situation develops rather than putting in place contingency plans that take effect a day or two after the event.
I regret that the Deputy's constituents were inconvenienced. In regard to the dispute we were not informed on time and, therefore, could not put more contingency plans in place. We shall certainly evaluate the outcome of what happened. Departmental officials were very efficient in ensuring the contingency plans were put in place as quickly as possible. Naturally, we had to be facilitated by post mistresses and post masters in other areas. It is difficult to deal with a lightening strike but, hopefully, people have not been too badly inconvenienced with regard to their payments. Some were paid that day in another post office or the next day in their local post office.
