asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of written complaints his Department have received about the operation of the social welfare system in the last year to the latest available date.

Records are not kept in such a way as to enable the information sought by the Deputy to be given.

Do I take it, when complaints come to the Department of Social Welfare, they are assigned to the wastepaper basket?

Oh, no.

The reply suggests that. It should be possible to have a record of complaints received. If the Department does not have a record the only conclusion I can come to—and indeed that to which the public and the House can come to—is that they are assigned to the wastepaper basket.

No, they are dealt with, replied to.

Slowly.

Would the Minister agree it might be a good idea to know the number of complaints received by his Department?

As the Deputy knows, in a Department like the Department of Social Welfare, complaints of this type are an everyday occurrence, are dealt with as far as possible and replies issued to them. I do not know if enumeration of the number of these complaints would be of any particular value. The important thing is to try to deal with them, give satisfaction, and make sure that any genuine causes for complaints are eliminated.

Yes, but surely the Minister would agree that unless his Department have some indication of the number of complaints, they will not be in a position to remedy them all. Dealing with complaints on an individual basis is not necessarily the best answer whereas one may resolve a lot of the problems in the Department of Social Welfare by having information as to the type of complaint most frequently received. I would hope that the Minister would consider it in that light.

As a matter of fact I saw some figures which would indicate that there are 10,000 communications per week to the Department. Some of those would be more in the nature of enquiries rather than complaints.

I am asking only about complaints.

I know but, as a rule, it is very difficult to distinguish between them. In this connection I have asked for correspondence over a period to be analysed to see what is the nature of the most persistent complaints.

That is it.

That will be a help to us. The correspondence is very voluminous, plus the telephone calls.