Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

It is clear the measures being taken are not working because the figures the Minister gave me for October more or less correlate to the figures I have for September. Therefore the measures taken are not decreasing the queues. The Minister said failure to supply all pertinent information can be one of the reasons for the difficulties. Are the people of Galway or Navan particularly incapable of filling in the forms compared to those in other places where there is only a three to six-week delay, depending on the application? There is almost a four-month delay for those applying through the office in Galway. How does the Minister intend to deal with this?

Is the Minister aware that unemployment is at its highest in a decade, a decade in which her party has been in power? It is expected there will be 60,000 more people on the live register next year. In view of the four-month delay in some offices, how will the system cope when there are 60,000 more applications?

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