asked the Minister for Social Welfare if she is aware of the difficulties being encountered by various recipients of social welfare payments in the Shankill area due to the distance they have to travel to collect their entitlements and the cost involved; and if she will consider the establishment of a sub-office in Shankill for payment of allowance.
Written Answers. - Shankill (County Dublin) Social Welfare Claimants.
98.
The current signing arrangements for unemployed persons are governed by statutory regulations which provide that claimants to unemployment assistance or unemployment benefit must sign the unemployed register to indicate that they are available for and genuinely seeking work. Persons who reside within six miles of a local office of the Department are required to present themselves there to sign the register at least once weekly to prove unemployment. Claimants who reside over six miles from the local office register as unemployed at their local Garda station or other approved signing centre and they are paid at their local post office on foot of a voucher sent to them by their local office.
Unemployed persons residing in the Shankill area are registered at either Dún Laoghaire or Bray employment exchanges depending on their address. They are required to attend at the appropriate exchange once weekly to sign the unemployed register and collect payment there. As the distance involved is approximately 3-4 miles the arrangements are not considered onerous and are in fact designed to keep any travelling expenses of claimants to a minimum.
In the circumstances the establishment of a local office or signing centre in Shankill to cater for unemployed persons residing there is not considered warranted.