asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he is aware of the continuing and serious delays in the payment of various categories of benefits to social welfare recipients in Limerick city and of the consequent hardships caused; and, if so, if he has taken or proposes to take any action to improve the situation.

The position generally in relation to the payment of the various social welfare benefits, pensions and allowances is normal except in the case of disability benefit where some delays have been occurring since the beginning of this year.

All the pension books for old age, retirement, invalidity, widows pensions and so on, totalling approximately 404,000, were distributed at the various post offices and sub-post offices in time for payment at the increased rates provided for in the budget. The increased rates of unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance are also being paid to recipients at employment exchanges from the first week they were due.

As the Deputy is aware, a changeover from insurance numbers to RSI numbers came into effect from 5 January 1981 for the purpose of payment of benefit. The main difficulties in connection with this changeover arose on claims for disability benefit, due mainly to the fact that in many cases medical certificates and claim forms did not contain both numbers. This led to difficulty in identifying the claimants to whom these forms related. I am sure it will be appreciated that the changeover involved a major administrative change, affecting as it does over one million insured persons. Because of the magnitude of the change it was considered that some initial difficulties might arise until claimants became familiar with the new arrangements. Every effort was made, however, in advance to devise systems to overcome all foreseeable problems.

I would like to point out that there are on average some 70,000 disability benefit payments, including a pay-related element, made each week. This has been the level of payments for some time and this number of payments has been made each week throughout the period from the beginning of this year. These payments alone totalled almost £31 million between January and March.

While there have been serious difficulties in connection with the changeover, I can assure the Deputy that these were tackled promptly and no effort was being spared to deal with them. The various measures that have been taken have, I am glad to say, produced results and the position generally is not far from normal.

If, however, the Deputy is aware of any cases in the Limerick area in which he considers that claimants are experiencing hardship through delay in payment, I will arrange to have the cases investigated and payment of benefit issued as quickly as possible.

In view of the fact that we have so many social welfare queries down and the unusual delay, would the Minister tell us the best way a Deputy can get an answer to a particular problem? Is it by ringing or writing to the Department or by putting down a parliamentary question, which involves the Department in considerable expense?

The Deputy will appreciate that this method means considerable inconvenience in the Department and makes other work more difficult. Normal dealings with Deputies have to be set aside so that officials can deal with parliamentary questions. The Deputy mentioned the large number of questions on today's Order Paper. Many of them were put down before Easter but were still left on the Order Paper. Written answers would fit the bill in most cases because nearly all have been paid for some time.

We understood that from 1 May the staff would agree to the phones in the Department being put back on. We have been informed that the non-use of phones is associated with a grade claim across the civil service generally and until this matter is resolved the phones will not be put back on. This means we have communications difficulties, but we are doing everything we can to have the position resolved.

Many of us have had to resort to parliamentary questions. Despite the co-operation I get from the Minister's office, it must be admitted that the parliamentary question gets a reply in six days while letters written to the Department will get an acknowledgement but not a final reply for some weeks. I realise that putting down parliamentary questions takes up a great deal of time in the Department and is an expensive process, but Deputies have been so frustrated that they realise this is the best way to elicit information.

I have set my office aside to deal with Deputies' queries, and we have been doing our best to deal with them. I accept what the Deputy says in relation to parliamentary questions. The problem would not be so bad if most of these questions, which had been put down before Easter, and which have been dealt with, were taken as written. Our main problem is righting any anomalies which still exist.

Is the Minister aware that if a Deputy writes to the Department it can take a month before he gets an acknowledgement?

What happens is this. The question is put straight through to the section. The time of the staff dealing with parliamentary questions at that level is completely taken up and they are not available to write back to Deputies unless they work overtime, as they have been doing. We have increased the staff numbers to try to meet that situation. What Deputy Corish said is true. When a Deputy sends in a query an acknowledgement is sent out straightaway. When the query comes back from the section, it is attached to the Deputy's letter and a reply is prepared.

I got an acknowledgement from the Department today in response to a query I put down before Easter.

The Deputy is welcome to come to my Department and I will show him how hard everyone is working——

That is no consolation to my constituents.

These matters take priority. The Deputy's queries are passed to the sections——

We get a reply to parliamentary questions very quickly. This proves that the best way to elicit information is to put down parliamentary questions.

It is the only way.

But only at the expense of the other systems. Many of these questions could have been taken as written and we would not be taking up the time of the House since payments were made on 3 April, 1 April, 27 March and so on. This brings into question the reason why these questions are on today's Order Paper.

Will the Minister answer the next question?