Work is in progress to assign two permanent staff members to Thurles’s Social Welfare Office because of the increased number of claims for jobseeker payments.
Deputy Noel Coonan Fine Gael speaking this morning to Thurles.Info stated:
“One temporary member of staff has been approved for the Thurles local office pending the assignment of permanent staff. The number of posts allocated to Thurles Local Office since June 2007 has risen from 17.6 to 19.2 but may need to be increased further with 1,417 Jobseeker’s Benefit applications made, up until mid June. North Tipperary’s social welfare staff provide an excellent and efficient service and as their workload increases it’s only right that additional staff are recruited to ease the load. The total number of applications for Job Seeker’s Allowance last year was 2,789. However, 2008 application were received up until 14th June of this year for the same allowance. This is 72% of the total received last year so I can only imagine what the figure will be by year’s end. It is a similar situation with the number of Jobseeker’s Benefits applications received. Three full time and four part time staff have been operating in the Roscrea office since 2008. This number has not increased this year. In Nenagh, one extra member of full-time staff has been allocated this year to bring the number to five. Recent Central Statistic Office figures show that the number signing on continues to rise steeply in North Tipperary. Additional staff are needed to help deal with the rising claim load for jobseekers payments,” concluded Deputy Coonan
In response to a parliamentary question, the Minister for Social & Family Affairs Thurles born Mary Hanafin TD stated:
“Offices in Roscrea and Nenagh are branch offices and operate under a contract for service to the Department. Branch office managers are therefore responsible for recruiting their own staff”.
Deputy Coonan’s remarks are bourne out by recently confirmed official figures.
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