THE State's oldest and most criticised section of the welfare service is to be reformed and modernised by the end of the year, the Minister for Social Welfare has announced.
The move will mean an end to along queues at health centres for people seeking emergency help, Mr De Rossa said. It should also mean an end to the frustration of being sent from one office to another to have forms stamped.
The supplementary welfare service is meant to ensure that no one in the State is without a basic income. Its community welfare officers pay an allowance, roughly equal to short term unemployment assistance, to people who have no income - usually because they are waiting for a social welfare benefit to come through.
It also provides help with clothing, electricity and gas bills, rent and mortgage interest payments and other items.
The service can trace its origins back to Elizabethan times but more recently has borne the imprint of the 19th century and its Poor Law approach. Indeed, community welfare officers are still known as "relieving officers".
It has been criticised on many grounds. One is that the availability of help with rent, mortgage, fuel, clothing and other expenses can vary from one area to another.
Most welfare officers treat the endless streams of applicants fairly and with dignity though they are doing what may be the most thankless job in the social welfare services and have traditionally worked in cramped conditions with poor facilities. A small minority of officers, however, are known for their sharp treatment of clients.
Mr De Rossa's package of reforms includes several elements:
. A computerisation scheme which will give welfare officers instant access to applicants' social welfare files and which will enable them to make quick decisions without having to send the applicants back to the social welfare office to get forms stamped.
. The guidelines on which community welfare officers base their decisions will be published by the end of the year. Secrecy about these guidelines has been a constant source of complaint from welfare groups.
. Community welfare officers decisions will be appealable to the independent social welfare appeals office. Ultimately this should bring new levels of uniformity and predictability to decisions. In tandem with this, standard administration procedures will be introduced throughout the State.
. Officers are to receive training, in interviewing skills and the laws of natural justice as well as in the use of the computerised system.
. Computerisation means officers will be able to use e-mail and print out letters and other documents. For some this will be a luxury. Often at the bottom of the pecking order when it come to facilities, some community welfare officers have had to work in absurd situations without administrative back up.
Mr De Rossa's reforms will mean a great deal to future applicants and to community welfare officers themselves. The last major reform of the system was introduced in the 1970s by Mr Frank Cluskey, the then parliamentary secretary to the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Mr Brendan Corish.