The Department for Social Protection has received scathing criticism following news that the Community Welfare service is to be removed from Annagry and Gaoth Dobhair and moved to offices further away such as the public services centre in Dungloe.
Speaking of the move, local community activist Micheál Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig said the move was a blow to local families and that consultation with the community was needed before such decisions were made.
“Moving these services out of the rural areas and into the larger towns will only cause more hardship on families who already find themselves in difficult times” Mr Mac Giolla Easbuig said.
“There is stress enough for people having to ask for help in the first place and this will only now be exacerbated by having to make their way to a town even further away.
“The public transport in these rural areas is not adequate enough for people to make the journey from the rural areas to these new offices and what transport is available will cost the people more money to make the longer return journeys.”
Speaking of the decision Mr Mac Giolla Easbuig said that the government had no understanding of rural communities in Ireland. “There has been no consultation with the local people of these rural areas in regard to this decision and there never is in such matters. These decisions are made by people who have little or no understanding of what living in rural Ireland is like and making such decisions would leave people to believe that the government are intent in stripping back the rural communities in this country.
“So I would insist that the Department of Social Protection halt this move and and have a proper and public discussion with the communities that the move will affect. It is only right that the people are consulted on matters that will impact on our communities and it is time that the government began seeing the realities and hardships of life that the ordinary people have to face on a day to day basis.”
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