Swords Signing on Decision Must be Reversed
Issued : Tuesday 2 February, 2010
The fact that people from Swords and Donabate must sign on in the city centre is an absolute disgrace, and I am calling on the Minister for Social and Family Affairs to reverse this outrageous decision.
The Swords Local office is now spread out between the new office in the Credit Union on North Street, the portacabins on the Malahide Rd. and now the old North Cumberland St. Social Welfare office aswell.
Up until now, signing on for Swords Jobseekers had been suspended, a common sense approach to the problem. However, I am now informed that the suspension has been lifted as of this month, and people who are signing have been told that they must now do so in the city centre.
This is a totally unacceptable solution and will cause great difficulty, especially for those recently made unemployed, who have perhaps suspended previous childcare arrangements to allow for the unemployed party to mind the kids. They may now have to drag the kids into the city centre with them when signing on.
The OPW together with Senior Management in the Department secured the premises in North St. seemingly knowing that it would be totally inadequate to service the needs of the local area. I have been informed that North St. will now deal with new claims and information queries, Malahide Rd will be a back office and for storing claims and North Cumberland St which had been closed and moved to Kings Inn St has now been reopened to form part of the Swords service.
The new permanent Local Office on Forster Way is in the pipeline, but will take 2/3 years at a minimum before it is completed.
I am calling on the Department to rearrange the service in some way to ensure that the signing on process is carried out in Swords. Failing that, perhaps they can allow people to sign on every two months instead, which may somewhat alleviate the unnecessary hardship.
