Vol. 516 No. 6
334 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will arrange to have his Department accept unemployment assistance forms in rural areas in order to allow the gardaí to concentrate on their policing role; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8928/00]
All applicants to unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit are required to sign the unemployed register. Persons living within a six mile radius sign at their local office. For their convenience, persons who live more than six miles from their nearest local office sign at local Garda stations and other signing centres.
There are approximately 44,000 customers signing at Garda stations. Formerly, all of them were required to sign once a week. Currently, all of them sign at monthly or less frequent intervals. Signing is confined to a specified day, Tuesday, and, quite often, to a particular period of time on that day. Thus, the process is designed to have minimal impact on Garda day-to-day operations.
