asked the Minister for Social Welfare why statistics are not kept by his Department to show the different categories of persons, particularly school leavers who are in receipt of unemployment assistance.
Written Answers. - Unemployment Assistance Categories.
105.
Weekly unemployment stattistics compiled by the local offices of my Department are issued as a national summary by the Central Statistics Office. The current form of these statistics—approved by the Government at the time for adoption from January, 1966—do, in fact, distinguish various categories of unemployed persons but as regards recipients of unemployment assistance the only breakdown of age is for over and under 65 years. "School leaver" is an imprecise term and as recipients of unemployment assistance must be aged at least 18 years, new recipients at that age, even if they were separately identified, could include many persons who had not attended school for some considerable time.