asked the Minister for Social Welfare the number of people in receipt of (1) disability benefit on 1 July 1985 to 30 June 1986; and (2) the number of those recipients who were in receipt of disability benefit for a continuing period of 12 months.

Between 1 July 1985 and 30 June 1986, there were approximately 223,000 qualified claims for disability benefit. During this period there was an average of 79,000 persons in receipt of benefit. Details of this are as follows:

At any time approximately half of these would be in receipt of benefit for over 12 months.