A six-month backlog in contributory pension payments will be cleared by August, the Department of Social and Family Affairs said yesterday.
The department's pension services office in Sligo has appointed 24 additional staff to help clear the backlog and avert a threatened strike by members of the Civil, Public and Services Union.
The union accepted a last-minute settlement on Monday night and cancelled a series of protest actions that were due to begin yesterday.
About 400 clerical and staff officers had planned to take part in two-hour protests yesterday and on Monday next. Staff also said they would not answer telephones in the office, which averages 5,000 customer calls per day, on Tuesday next.
The threatened action followed repeated warnings over the last year by union members "that management failures in tackling a series of technical glitches in the new €27 million IT framework and operational programmes were causing ever-increasing backlogs in handling new pension claims and some pension maintenance processes".
CPSU assistant general secretary Derek Mullen said there was a backlog of up to 14,000 contributory pensions because of problems with the new system and that the difficulties resulted in increased levels of stress for frontline staff trying to deliver services to the pensioners.
The department denied there was any problem with the system, saying "all systems have issues, particularly early in their life cycle, and a number of other factors have contributed to this backlog including seasonal increase in claim volumes and staff movement".
The settlement provides for the setting up of a dedicated unit of 50 staff to tackle the backlog.
