Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan is planning to establish a new agency to take over responsibility for the administration and payment of €12 billion worth of welfare benefits a year.
It is one of a number of measures being drawn up as part of a modernisation programme, due to be announced later this year, which will involve the upgrading of local welfare offices, a new swipe card for welfare services and management of benefits through the internet.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Brennan said he wanted his department to focus on policy issues behind welfare payments and to move the administration of payments to a stand-alone agency.
"Three-quarters of the department is involved in the administration of schemes. What I'm planning is a separate division which would administer these schemes professionally, but I'm anxious that the department focuses on getting behind the payments.
"Social issues can't be solved by welfare and support payments alone. The easy route is to salve our social conscience by signing the cheques and hoping the problems will go away.
"The honest route is to go behind the payments and confront the problem. To achieve social change on the scale we need to in Ireland will call for serious reforms."
He said tackling the scourge of child poverty, helping to provide greater opportunities for lone parents and tackling the looming pensions crisis were major issues upon which progress could be made through welfare changes and support.
Up to 4,500 staff are employed by the department and its agencies. The planned changes are similar to those in the health sector, which saw day-to-day responsibility for the health service moving to the Health Service Executive. Responsibility for policy and planning has remained with the Department of Health.
The modernisation strategy also includes plans to change the often negative perception of welfare benefits by upgrading welfare offices around the country and eventually to do away with the practice of dealing with recipients through "the hatch". Instead, more emphasis will be placed on individual consultation, needs assessments and targeted support.
A rolling investment programme is expected to form part of the package aimed at upgrading older buildings.
Technology will also play a new role, with increased access and control over welfare payments for recipients over the internet, while plans are at an advanced stage for a new swipe card for a range of State services.
This card would contain personal public numbers (PPNs), social welfare details, as well as health-related information, such as drugs payment details. This would stop people having to supply the same information repeatedly to State bodies.
The modernisation plans come at a time when officials in the department and other agencies are at an advantaged stage in drawing up new measures aimed at tackling child poverty. Details of a new child benefit payment, which may be introduced in the next budget, are due to be finalised shortly by officials at the National Economic and Social Council.
While weekly child benefit payments are paid for all children, the Minister is planning an additional "second-tier" payment for children in unemployed or low-wage households, which would allow for a more targeted approach to ending child poverty. The size of the payment has yet to be decided, but is likely to be a significant addition to the monthly child benefit, which is worth between €142 and €177 per child.
