Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 28 Mar 1990

Vol. 397 No. 6

Written Answers. - Travellers' Social Welfare Claims.

Richard Bruton

Ceist:

126 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social Welfare the present arrangements for signing on to claim unemployment benefit/assistance by travellers; and the changes which have recently been made affecting travellers who have heretofore been signing at their local exchange at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday.

Minister for Social Welfare (Dr. Woods)

The social welfare legislation provides that all applicants for unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance must be available for, capable of and genuinely seeking work. In order to satisfy the Department that they satisfy these statutory conditions, claimants are required to attend their local office or signing centre, normally once a week, and sign a declaration that they are unemployed.

Special signing arrangements exist for persons of no fixed abode throughout the country, all of whom are required to attend at their local office at the same time every week: Thursday mornings between 11.30 and 12. This arrangement, which was established in 1981, applies to all persons of no fixed abode, who are mainly from the travelling community. It is not normally applicable in the case of travellers who are known to have settled and have permanent addresses.

There has been no change in these administrative arrangements. However, following a recent meeting with the monitoring committee for travelling people, my Department has undertaken a review of travellers applicants who attend at the Gardiner St. and Werburgh St. employment exchanges to identify settled travellers with permanent addresses with a view to intergrating them into the normal signing arrangements generally applied to persons with fixed addresses. Sixty-seven such cases have been identified and their signing arrangements are being changed from the beginning of April.