Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein)

I thank the Minister for his reply. The information I have is that four new positions will be made available to County Donegal. I do not think that will go far enough but perhaps the Department has made an assessment that this number is what is required. I believe more positions are needed. What strikes me is that information is not included in the response. Does the Minister have any further information about those four positions? Will they be deployed to County Donegal?

The Minister said that a delay of up to two months in payment is exceptional in County Donegal. Does he recognise that the average waiting time in Letterkenny is five and a half weeks? That is the average wait for everyone availing of social welfare payments in the Letterkenny area and is not exceptional. I am sure the Minister is aware that one of the problems is that after waiting five and a half weeks or, in the case of those people who are on the other side of the average, six, seven or eight weeks, the applicants do not get all their entitlement. They get their weekly allowance and the other weeks' payments are posted to them at a later date. Even when the application is processed and they get their first payment, it is only one week's due. That is a significant problem.

The Minister corrected my figures which were wrong in the context of the level of unemployment. I should have said 62%. Something must be done. Perhaps the Minister might bring the issue back to the Department to find out if these positions are to be moved into County Donegal. If that is the case, they should be moved as soon as possible in order that some of the backlog could be addressed in the run-up to Christmas.