Around 205 civil and public servants have been redeployed to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to help process an "unprecedented" flood of welfare claims due to the Covid-19 virus.
In a statement, the Department confirmed that it has also hired over 100 temporary clerical officers since 2 March, while a small number of former department employees who now work in other government departments, have been reassigned back to deal with social protection work.
To address claims more rapidly, in recent weeks the Department has temporarily ceased or scaled back certain other operations, transferring staff onto more critical work such as claim processing and call banks.