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News At One: Eamon Gilmore, Labour leader, says clinics are being cancelled because welfare officers were either sick or on holidays
The Taoiseach has acknowledged there are increasing pressures on the social welfare system because of the number of people who have lost their jobs.
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Brian Cowen was responding to a question from Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore who said the social welfare system was creaking under the strain of people turning up at their offices.
He said many people were waiting up to three months before they could claim what was legally entitled to them.
