Department denies closure of welfare clinics

THE Department of Social Protection has denied that it has decided to close three community welfare clinics on the Southside.

Concerns have been raised locally that the closures would deprive elderly and disabled welfare recipients of easy access to emergency funding.

Southside People has learned that senior staff members working for department in the Dublin 8 area have been told that the three community welfare offices, which accommodate clinics for welfare recipients, will close in the coming weeks.

The clinics are currently held within HSE health centres on Cashel Road, Crumlin; Curlew Road, Drimnagh and Limekiln Avenue in Walkinstown.

Local sources claim they have been informed by departmental officials that the offices will be amalgamated and clinics for welfare recipients will instead be held at the existing health centre on Parnell Road in Dublin 12.

There is widespread local disquiet about the plans because welfare recipients, many of whom are disabled and elderly will have to travel several miles to the office on Parnell Road if the other offices close.

A local source in Crumlin said there were major concerns about the size of the Parnell Road office and its ability to cope with the new influx of clients from the other three offices.

“There is nowhere for people to park around there or even to park a buggy or pram,

? he said.

A local source from the Walkinstown area also said welfare recipients would now have no direct bus access to the Parnell Road office, which is located around three miles from the health centre on Limekiln Avenue.

Gerry McGuigan, a local community activist, described the potential closure of the offices as an

“attack on the elderly

?.

Cllr Pat Dunne (PBP) said a number of staff employed by the Department of Social Protection in the area had informed him that the three health centres were due to close before mid-February.

“The supplementary payments community welfare officers make to recipients are for people who are generally not entitled or aren’t receiving a standard social welfare payment,

? he explained.

“The function of the community welfare officer is to provide a minimum of assistance to those persons, maybe while they are waiting for a claim to come through, so it is the final gap between absolute poverty and receiving benefit.

?

Eamon Timmins, the spokesman for Age Action Ireland, said:

“For a section of society, which in the main doesn’t have access to technology, you have to raise the question how are those people going to access what are emergency services?

?

A spokesperson for the Department of Social Protection said that because of the moratorium on recruitment in the public service, it was reviewing a number of Community Welfare Service (CWS) clinics across the country with the aim of providing an efficient service to all customers.

“No decisions have yet been made in relation to the Crumlin area,

? the spokesperson said.

“Where changes in services are planned, all customers from these areas will be notified.

?

A spokesperson for the HSE said services at the health clinics on Curlew Road and Limekiln Avenue would remain there.

She said the health centre on Cashel Road would be demolished and relocated to an existing HSE premises on Armagh Road in Crumlin.