asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will revise the arrangements whereby those in receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance on Whiddy Island, Bantry, County Cork, have to leave the island and travel to Bantry to collect their social welfare entitlements and instead arrange to have payments made at the post office on the island.

The present arrangements have been in operation for some considerable time and I am not aware of any previous representations for a change in these arrangements. However, I am prepared to have the matter examined and I will write to the Deputy in due course.

In the light of the Minister's initial examination of the situation on Whiddy Island, will he accept that the point I have raised is a sensible one? It has been made to me by a number of the residents of the island. May I take it that if it can be done he will meet the case made?

As I said to the Deputy, I appreciate the case he is making. I will have it examined as a matter of urgency and will come back to him as quickly as possible.

14.