asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state if the regulations governing the issue of vouchers for footwear prescribe that some payment towards the cost of footwear must be made by persons in receipt of unemployment benefit, whereas a contribution may not be required from recipients of unemployment assistance; and if the regulations are such, if he will indicate the grounds on which dissimilar conditions have been prescribed for these two groups of persons; and if he will now consider amending the regulations so as to permit the issue of vouchers without payment to persons in receipt of unemployment benefit whose circumstances on inquiry are found to be substantially the same as persons in receipt of unemployment assistance.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Footwear Vouchers.
No restriction of the nature referred to in the first part of the Deputy's question is embodied in the regulations made by the Minister in connection with the distribution of official footwear, and the amount of the contribution to be made by recipients of the official footwear is solely a matter for determination by the public assistance authorities.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary satisfied that the persons receiving these boots in rural Ireland— I know nothing of conditions in the cities—are all entitled to get them within the spirit of the Act?
I have no information to the contrary.
If he inquired into it, the Parliamentary Secretary would be astonished at the people who are getting these boots.
And at some of those being refused.
Possibly. I see the people who get them.