asked the Minister for Social Welfare if daily signing at employment exchanges is general throughout the country; and, if not, the reason daily signing has been introduced in some areas of Donegal.
Written Answers . - Employment Exchanges .
368.
: Daily signing on each of the five working days of the week is the statutory requirement for claimants who live within two miles of their nearest local office of the Department. This may be relaxed from time to time where the situation in the local office does not allow of its full implementation. Daily signing, however, is in operation in almost half of the Department's 122 local offices and is widespread throughout the country.
The position in County Donegal is in line with the practice in the rest of the country. Daily signing in County Donegal is in operation at four of the eight local offices. In the remaining offices relaxed signing arrangements are in operation under which claimants living within two miles are required to sign on four days of each week.
The frequency of signing at local offices is kept under constant review and modified from time to time where circumstances so require. The normal daily signing on five days a week was reintroduced in two local offices in County Donegal, where signing arrangements had been relaxed due to the postal dispute and its aftermath, in October 1979 in one office and in January 1980 in the other. In September 1980 four days a week signing for persons within two miles was introduced in two local offices. This represented a reduction from five days a week signing in one office and an increase from two days a week signing in another. In all these cases the changes were made in the light of the number of claimants and of the particular circumstances at each local office.