asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state the number of persons who have been deprived of unemployment assistance in Dublin during the past year allegedly for not conscientiously seeking work.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Payment of Unemployment Assistance.
My Department's records are not kept in a form to enable the precise information sought by the Deputy to be supplied without examination of a considerable number of individual records and I do not feel the time and labour involved would be justified. I might say, however, that during the year ended 30th April last, 339 applications for unemployment assistance from Dublin were recommended for refusal by the Dublin court of referees on the grounds that the applicants were not genuinely seeking and unable to obtain suitable employment. The recommendations were accepted in all these cases.
The only applications for unemployment assistance from Dublin disallowed on the grounds indicated and not included in the figure given above would be cases where an application was refused by the statutory officer and the applicant did not appeal to the court of referees. The number of such cases would be very small.