Minister Doherty opens refurbished social welfare office in Cahir

A refurbished social welfare office in Cahir was visited by Regina Doherty, Minister for Social Protection.

Minister Doherty inspected the new look office and met with manager Leo Coffey and staff at the office which has undergone a €50,000 refurbishment.

"It was an honour to welcome Minister Doherty to the office, " said manager Leo Coffey.

Minister Doherty paid tribute to the staff in Cahir for the success it achieved in making the Cahir branch a paperless office in a pilot scheme.

"Cahir was selected to be the first branch in the country to go paperless. We began last October and because the pilot scheme went so well it has now been rolled out in all fifty eight branches all over the country since and they are now down to the last two or three branches in the country" said Mr Coffey.

"It has made the operation more efficient. It created a lot of space for the staff and for the customers. We were the guinea pigs really and because the benefits were so obvious in Cahir a very short time after going down the paperless route, the project was very quickly rolled out around the country" said Mr Coffey, whose family has a forty seven year association with the office.

His mother Veronica was manager before him (she retired as manager but still works in the office) and his father Billy was the manager from 1972 to 1989.

He thanked the manager of the Clonmel office (a branch exists in smaller towns like Cahir) Claire Healy who put the Cahir branch forward for the pilot scheme.

Mr Coffey said that a combination of the paperless branch pilot scheme and the refurbishment works had transformed the branch offices in Market Yard.

He thanked Newcastle Construction for the excellent work carried out and said it enabled the branch to provide access to wheelchair users and provide a better service because of the improved facilities.

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