NEWTON'S OPTIC:THE PRIMARY function of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, according to its mission statement, is "to promote a caring society".
Many believe its primary function is issuing 950,000 welfare payments a week but this process is largely automated and the payments are never systematically reviewed, leaving the department's 4,700 staff free to promote a caring society.
Experts agree that a caring society is "better" than a non-caring society, as long as this judgment is entirely non-judgmental. The department's mission statement also requires it to "enable active participation, promote social inclusion and support families".
All these vital public services are under threat now that 2,500 Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) staff at the department have escalated their industrial action over flexible working. That action began last week when staff refused to serve members of the public during their flexible Civil Service lunchtime, or "the afternoon" as it is known in the private sector. This made an escalation almost inevitable as few members of the public noticed. CPSU staff are now also refusing to answer the phone, making a further escalation equally necessary. That escalation could take the form of not taking forms if past form is any guide.
Although the dispute is only a week old, disruption to the promotion of a caring society has already caused widespread indifference. Sympathy is in short supply across much of the country and there are reports of people queuing for compassion.
Stockpiles of patronising leaflets are running dangerously low. This may be only a foretaste of the chaos to come if active participation is not enabled, social inclusion is not promoted and families are not supported, especially at lunchtime.
There are even fears that the dispute could spread beyond the department to its statutory agencies. How will poverty be combated without the 24 staff at the Combat Poverty Agency? Last year they challenged low incomes head-on by spending one-third of their €6 million budget on their own salaries. That fight must continue.
How will families be supported without the 63 staff at the Family Support Agency? Last year they spent half their €20 million budget on "counselling grants". The families of all concerned must not be left wanting.
Most urgently of all, how will people be included without the Office for Social Inclusion? Its national action plan to eliminate poverty by 2016 uses a definition of poverty that makes its elimination statistically impossible. Clearly, this groundbreaking work must go on.
It is true that the industrial action poses no threat whatsoever to existing social welfare recipients, for much the same reason that a bank can close at lunchtime without cancelling a standing order. But CPSU staff could still plunge the State into a summer of discontent, with closed-down counters and slammed-down receivers causing active exclusion, social uncaring and statistically escalating leaflets.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin must take urgent action to prevent this nightmare scenario. Perhaps it would be inclusive to view unemployment and Civil Service employment as merely two different forms of welfare dependency. Perhaps it would be enabling for more people to experience both. That should not be too difficult for the Minister to arrange. She can make a few phone calls over lunch.