Vol. 402 No. 10
31 Mr. Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Welfare the progress which has been made towards eliminating the differences between urban and rural rates of social welfare payments by increasing rates to the urban level, as recommended by the Commission on Social Welfare; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I was very happy last year to increase the rural rate of unemployment assistance to the same level as the higher urban rate. Thus I ended a long standing anomaly.
Section 11 of the Social Welfare Act, 1989 provided for the discontinuance of the lower rate of unemployment assistance which had been paid to persons residing in non-urban areas and the application of the higher "urban" rate throughout the country with effect from July 1989.
