I would ask the Minister to show a little more consideration than her predecessor did in regard to this equality directive, particularly in relation to the assessment of claims of married women for unemployment assistance allowances. Unless the investigation and the questioning are carried out in a nondiscriminatory fashion, married women will continue to be excluded. At the time of the introduction of this Bill we tried to have an amendment inserted to ensure that those questions which discriminated against married women on the basis of their sex would be excluded. For example, nowadays the first question she is asked when being assessed for unemployment assistance is who is minding her children. I do not think any officer asks a man who is minding his children. This type of investigative procedure should not be allowed. I am confident that the Minister recognises the problem much better than her predecessor did and will ensure that this will be looked at further.

I am sure the Deputy does not want me to go down the road of criticising my predecessor. I think he dealt with this whole matter in a very skilful manner. I would obviously be very concerned to think that, after we had implemented this directive for equal treatment with some difficulty and after some length of time, any discriminatory questioning would remain in the system. I would expect that the Department of Social Welfare personnel would be very aware of the requirement to be absolutely fair and even-handed in their treatment of applicants for unemployment assistance.

There will not be many women who will qualify to receive unemployment assistance. I do not think it will be anything to do with their status as married women, or who is going to look after their children. It will be because the unemployment assistance schemes, like many other schemes, are means tested. That is the reason not very many women will qualify. As regards the question on the care of children, the social welfare officers must exercise great care bearing in mind that it must be established that the applicants, men and women, are genuinely available for and seeking work.