asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will take steps to eliminate the long delays in the processing of applications for social welfare benefits in the Cork area.

6.

asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason for the delay in issuing disability benefit cheques and other allowances over the Christmas period; and if he will investigate the reason there was a sudden stoppage in the issuing of a large number of cheques from 12 December onwards.

It is proposed to take Question Nos. 5 and 6 together.

Due to the substantial increase in the Department's workload in recent years and the constraints on staffing resources, there has been pressure on all of the Department's schemes and services. Despite the best efforts of the staff concerned in their response to these difficulties, this pressure has resulted in certain inevitable disimprovements in the Department's ability to process claims, appeals and inquiries.

There do not appear, however, to be any particular or special problems in this regard arising in the Cork area. There was a short postal dispute in Cork from 12 to 18 December which caused some interruptions of service, particularly in the issuing of disability benefit cheques. Special arrangements were made to meet this problem by transmitting queries regarding delays by telex from the Cork office to headquarters which enabled cheques to be issued with little delay.

During the Christmas period, generally, delays can arise from the seasonal pressure on the postal system. In order to mitigate the effect of such delays special arrangements are made to issue the bulk of the disability payments before the usual time, including, in many instances, in advance of the receipt of medical certificates. These bulk payments were made on 18 and 21 December. Thus, with the exception of persons who have only recently commenced a benefit claim, all recipients are issued with advance payments.

I accept the Minister's reply. The postal strike in Cork was a contributory factor to the delays at Christmas but is the Minister aware that there were similar delays during the Easter holiday weekend and that some of his Department's officials are on record as saying that the problem arises partly from the arrangement whereby civil servants have a free day after a bank holiday weekend? Would the Minister take the steps necessary to avoid a repetition of the humilitation suffered by people in the Cork region as a result of the delays in forwarding social welfare cheques? Regarding the second question, are there any plans to eliminate the waste of public moneys that results from the duplication involved in regionalising the payment of disability benefit cheques? Even as an initial step, would he consider the setting up of a pilot area in the Cork region for the regionalisation of payment of disability benefit?

The question of regionalising the system is a seperate one at this stage. What the Deputy has stated is correct to the extent that there are difficulties which have resulted from constraints that have arisen from the Government's policy in relation to overall staffing numbers in the public service. This policy has caused some problems but these are not problems that are peculiar to Cork. I should explain that once a disability benefit or occupational injuries claim has been authorised, payment issues within a day of receipt of the medical certificate at headquarters. Certificates are processed centrally in regard to payment. This operation is carried out by a special subsection — Benefits 17. No distinction is made between various geographical areas.

Payments could be delayed if arrears build up and this occurred to a very limited extent over the Christmas period when post was particularly heavy. Every effort was made to keep arrears to a minimum by means of overtime and other special arrangements. Therefore, maximum delays were kept to one or two days. In the Easter period also, when there are shorter working weeks and additional leave taken, the difficulties would be added to by constraints on staffing numbers. The impact of staff shortages would be felt at these periods and in a week when there is a public holiday. However, I assure the Deputy and the House that every effort is made to keep delays to a minimum and that, even at the worst times, the maximum delays were only one to two days.

Does the Minister agree that there is a serious problem when local health board officers are on record as saying that the claims for supplementary welfare allowances trebled and even quadrupled over bank holiday weekends? Does the Minister agree that there is a strong case for the regionalisation of the disability benefit payments system? When we can withdraw money from a bank by means of a plastic disc, surely there should be some way of putting disability contribution records on computer and allowing people to receive their money locally? A pilot scheme should be introduced, perhaps in Cork.

The whole question of the operation of social welfare and all its ramifications are at present the subject of review and a very intense examination by the Commission on Social Welfare which was set up nearly two years ago. They will issue their findings later this year. I expect that the questions Deputy Allen posed will be examined by the commission to see if such a suggestion would improve the payments system. There is a difficulty in so far as that when a claimant for social welfare benefit obtains assistance from the relevant health board certain communications have to be made between the health board and the Department in order to get the necessary refund. When the claim is ready for payment in the Department but the information is not available it can cause difficulty. The payment could be delayed by the Department pending clarification of what the applicant received from the health board to ensure that a double payment was not made for the period. Perhaps improvements could be achieved in the system.