Thomil's Random Ramblings

This one’s going to be controversial. Saying or writing anything positive about anything government-related here in Ireland seems to be only slightly less frowned upon than treason or terrorism. This is all the more true for the Department of Social Protection, the government department that is in charge of all social welfare related matters in Ireland, as the services of this department seem to be only taken up by “lifestyle unemployed”, “chronic wasters” and, of course, “social welfare tourists” aka immigrants, at least if you listen to conversations in the media. Given this less than positive public perception, I’m writing this post with a certain trepidation. After all, ever since leaving my job back in 2024 for health reasons, I’ve had to rely on Ireland’s social welfare system myself. To make things even worse, I’ve actually been mostly impressed by my experiences. Having said that, my first contact with the department wasn’t exactly positive. For starters, I’d only had to deal w...