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DSFA Annual Report CONTENTS Foreword from the Minister 03 Introduction from the Secretary-General 04 Chapter 1: The Department 05 Chapter 2: 2004 – A Year in Review 11 Chapter 3: Goal 1 – Income Support 17 Chapter 4: Goal 2 – Support to Work 31 Chapter 5: Goal 3 – Families 37 Chapter 6: Goal 4 – Poverty and Social Exclusion 41 Chapter 7: Goal 5 – e-Government agenda 49 Chapter 8: Goal 6 – the Department and its Staff 53 Appendix 1:Status Report on 2004 Organisational Targets 70 Appendix 2:Summary of DSFA Budget Package, 2005 71 Appendix 3:Expenditure on social welfare by payment type, 2003 and 2004 76 Appendix 4:Legislation enacted in 2004 78 Appendix 5:Performance against Customer Charter standards (May – December 2004) 86 Appendix 6:Ministers in charge of the Department since 1947 89 ANNUAL REPORT 2004 01 ANNUAL REPORT 2004 02 FOREWORD FROM THE MINISTER I am very pleased to introduce this 2004 Annual Report of the Department. The Department is central to the social and economic life of this country. Through its range of schemes – from Maternity and Child Benefit, across its Social and Family Services, to Old Age Pensions – it touches on the life of practically every person in the state at some time or another. This Government is proud of our investment in social provision. In 2004, spending on social welfare reached €11.29 billion – the highest ever – or almost 29% of all Government expenditure. Each week, the Department made payments to around 960,000 persons while a further 540,000 families received Child Benefit each month. Since becoming Minister for Social and Family Affairs in September 2004 I have become more directly aware of the vital role of the Department in the life of the nation. Enormous progress has been made in the development of the social welfare system, and the progress made during 2004 is outlined in this report. There is much work still to do and my priority, as Minister, is to look behind the payments and services which the Department provides and seek to address the key challenges facing the country whether in the areas of pensions, long-term care, provision of opportunities for employment, education and further development for recipients of those payments, tackling child poverty and so on. I am confident that we will be able to make sufficient progress in these key areas in the period ahead. Seamus Brennan, TD Minister for Social and Family Affairs ANNUAL REPORT 2004 03 INTRODUCTION FROM THE SECRETARY-GENERAL This is the second report on the Department’s Statement of Strategy 2003-2005 "Promoting a Caring Society" . It outlines the progress we made during 2004 on delivering on our commitments under the strategy. The Department was responsible for expenditure of some €11.3 billion in 2004. Our main priority is the continued delivery of social welfare payments in an efficient and effective way and the implementation of changes in services as required. The quality of the service provided by the Department’s staff in challenging circumstances during 2004 was of a consistently high standard. In addition a number of significant improvements were made in service delivery during the year. The Department also has a major input into policy making both in relation to social welfare schemes and more generally in the context of the social policy and social inclusion agendas and a number of important developments in this regard are outlined in the report. Investment in new technology and support for the e-Government agenda is a major aspect of the Department’s work and we have made good progress in the development of our IT systems and contributed in a significant way to the wider e-Government agenda, as outlined in the report. The programme of decentralisation announced by the Government in December 2003 has major implications for the Department with 1,300 posts to be decentralised to Drogheda, Carrickmacross, Carrick-on-Shannon, Sligo, Donegal and Buncrana. Planning and implementation of this programme has been and will continue to be a priority. Ensuring that governance and risk management arrangements are adequate for business continuity and implementation of the major changes facing the Department is another important priority and a number of measures were put in place in 2004 to strengthen the Department’s risk management and control systems. We are conscious of our role as a public service organisation, of the particular importance of the services we provide and of the need for those services to be provided to the highest standard. It is to the credit of the staff of the Department that, despite the challenges we faced and the increased demands on our services, we were able to maintain and, in a number of respects, improve our overall service during 2004. John Hynes Secretary-General ANNUAL REPORT 2004 04 CHAPTER 01 THE DEPARTMENT ANNUAL REPORT 2004 5 THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL AND FAMILY AFFAIRS > The main functions of the preparation of legislation and for the provision of Department are: policy support and advice to the Minister. - to formulate appropriate social protection Social Welfare Services (SWS) is the executive arm policies; of the Department and is responsible for the - to administer and manage the delivery of administration and management of social welfare statutory and non-statutory social and schemes and services through a network of local, family schemes and services; and regional and other offices. Our main offices are - to work with other Departments and located in Dublin, Dundalk, Letterkenny, Longford, agencies in the delivery of Government Sligo and Waterford. priorities. Regional Structure: The local delivery of some The main business of the Department continues services is structured on a 10-region basis with to be the provision of income support, including offices in Cork, Dundalk, Galway, Limerick, insurance (PRSI) based payments, social assistance Longford, Sligo, Waterford and three in the Dublin (means tested) payments, associated secondary area. Within these regions there is a network of benefits and Child Benefit. Increasingly, the 58 Social Welfare Local Offices (SWLOs) and 68 Department’s emphasis is also on meeting the Branch Offices (SWBOs). diverse needs of our different customer groups by not only developing a range of services that give Social Welfare Appeals Office is the independent our customers financial security in a prompt and Office responsible for determining appeals efficient way but also encouraging them to against decisions on social welfare entitlements. maximise their participation in society, at whatever level their skills and abilities permit. The Reach agency (www.reachservices.ie), which This requires collaboration with other reports to the Department, has as its aims to Government Departments and Agencies and the radically improve the quality of service to voluntary and community sector. personal and business customers of Government and to develop and deploy the Public Services Broker (PSB) to help agencies achieve that > Organisation of the Department improvement. In particular Reach is to develop and implement an integrated set of processes, The Department employs 4,734 people (4,289 full- systems and procedures to provide a standard time equivalent posts) and is structured on means of access to public services, to be known as Aireacht/Executive lines. the Public Services Broker. The Aireacht provides a range of corporate services comprising Personnel (including the Employee Assistance Service), Corporate and Staff Development Units, Finance, Facilities Management and Internal Audit. It also includes the policy area – the Planning Division – which is responsible for the formulation of social protection and other social support policies, the THE DEPARTMENT 6 MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE JOHN HYNES Secretary General BERNADETTE LACEY Director General GERRY DALY TOM MULHERIN ALICE O’FLYNN BRIAN O RAGHALLAIGH Assistant Director General Assistant Secretary Assistant Secretary Assistant Director General VERA DERVAN GERRY MANGAN NIALL BARRY MAUREEN WALDRON Director Director Director Director EOIN O’BROIN OLIVER RYAN BRIAN FLYNN Director Director – REACH Director ANNUAL REPORT 2004 7 > Statutory Agencies - The Office of the Pensions Ombudsman, which investigates complaints of injustice There are five offices which come under the aegis due to maladministration, disputes of fact of the Department: or law, in occupational pension schemes. - Comhairle which has responsibility for The Pensions Ombudsman is a statutory supporting the provision of independent officer and exercises his functions information, advice and advocacy services independently. He reports to the Houses of for all citizens throughout the country. the Oireachtas OASIS (On-line Access to Services, (www.pensionsombudsman.ie); and Information and Support), is a public service information system provided over - The Pensions Board which is responsible for the Internet by Comhairle overseeing the implementation of the (www.comhairle.ie); Pensions Act which concerns the security and development of occupational pensions, - Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) which has and for the development of occupational responsibilities in the areas of advice to the pensions (www.pensionsboard.ie). Minister, research, action programmes and information in relation to poverty in Ireland (www.cpa.ie); - Family Support Agency (FSA) which is responsible for the provision of a family mediation service, the support, promotion and development of marriage and relationship counselling and other family supports, and the Family and Community Services
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