asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state the percentage of persons on the live register at the employment exchanges in the city of Dublin who were refused (a) unemployment benefits and (b) unemployment assistance in January, 1959 and 1960.

Records are not kept from which the information sought by the Deputy could be obtained. To obtain this information, it would be necessary to examine all current and lapsed claims for unemployment benefit and applications for unemployment assistance held at the Dublin Employment Exchanges and I do not propose to have the very large amount of work involved in such an examination undertaken.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary afraid to let the people know to how many people he has denied assistance?

The percentage of appeals disallowed in the last two years was .3.