Payments to 100,000 recipients are delayed as social welfare offices close

PUBLIC SERVICES:A RANGE of public services from swimming pools and museums to bin collection and Customs were curtailed yesterday due to the one-day strike. More than 100,000 recipients of social welfare benefits experienced delays in their payments due to the action.

Social welfare offices around the country were closed and some 55,000 people who were due to collect their payment yesterday were delayed until today.

Some 35,000 recipients of short-term schemes such as maternity benefit who were due to receive payments into their bank accounts today will not receive them until tomorrow.

Payments have been delayed by a day for some 20,000 people who receive payment by cheque for illness benefit, maternity benefit and supplementary welfare benefit.

Government-run museums and galleries were closed yesterday to the surprise of some tourists who tried to visit them.

Regina O’Neill from New York and her nieces Lauren Lees and Alexandra Wagner were on holidays in Dublin yesterday and tried to visit the Book of Kells in Trinity College and Dublin Castle.

They were confused by the strike as the hotel staff had not mentioned it to them.

Ms O’Neill said the small pickets were much more subdued than pickets in New York. Michelle Carr from Louisiana was very disappointed as yesterday was her only day in Dublin. She had planned to visit many museums, but only visited the privately-run Viking exhibition Dublinia.

Other public leisure services that were curtailed yesterday included many council-operated pools and libraries. The gates of dozens of parks operated by Dublin City Council remained locked. St Stephen’s Green and Dublin Castle were among the Office of Public Works (OPW) operated locations which remained closed in the capital.

Many of the State’s other visitor attractions such as the OPW-operated Ceide Fields visitor centre in Mayo were closed for the day.

Public transport services such as Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and the Dart operated normally yesterday. Dublin Bus did not pass picketed gates at University College Dublin, St James’s Hospital, Blanchardstown hospital and Beaumont Hospital.

Dublin City Council traffic control services were not fully operational yesterday and ran on a skeleton staff. As a result, traffic information services for commuters were curtailed.

Department of Transport driving tests were cancelled yesterday. Affected learner drivers are to be contacted by post with an alternative date.

Customs services were limited at ports and airports. The Passport Office was also closed, along with the other public offices like the Revenue Commissioners.

Most Tuesday bin collection services operated by councils were cancelled yesterday. In Waterford city, this means bins will be collected today or tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the meat processing industry said it was seriously affected by a strike of agricultural officers at meat processing plants. “The entire industry has been brought to a standstill,” said Meat Industry Ireland director Cormac Healy.

“A normal day’s work would have involved the processing of 10,000 sheep, 10,000 pigs and 7,000 cattle. This was not possible today,” he said.

As a result of the action, employees were out of work, export sales have been lost and there were “unacceptable losses” for an industry already under pressure, he said.