asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether the long-term unemployed over the age of 55 should be exempt from signing on.

As part of my proposals for greater flexibility in the unemployment payments area I intend to allow persons over age 55 who are in receipt of unemployment assistance at the long-term rate, many of whom regard themselves as semi-retired and not really members of the labour force, to register as unemployed once every three months only. Officials of my Department are currently engaged in discussions with the union representing staff of employment exchanges on the introduction of the necessary arrangements. It is hoped that the arrangements can be introduced at an early date.

In addition, I made provision in section 28 of the Social Welfare Act, 1988 for a pre-retirement allowance for older long-term unemployed persons entitled to the maximum rate of unemployment assistance. Under the pre-retirement allowance scheme, which will be optional and which initially will apply to those over age 60 who satisfy the eligibility criteria, there will be no requirement to attend the local office to sign-on and payment will be made by means of orders encashable at the post office. Some minor amendments to the legislation are being prepared at present and will be included in the forthcoming Social Welfare Bill. Following this the necessary regulations to bring the allowance into operation will be made as soon as the administrative arrangements are in place.

I am glad the Minister is making some gesture towards the elderly who are unemployed in the long term by relaxing the signing-on rule. I would press him to go a little further. I would like to know how many over the age of 55 are registered as being unemployed. If the Minister has not the exact statistics, has he any indication of how many of those over the age of 55 actually come off the register and secure employment? The information I have is that the proportion would be very small indeed. What are the prospects, if any, of people over the age of 55 who are long-term unemployed securing employment in the light of the records available?

It is estimated that there are about 11,500 claimants on long-term unemployment assistance between the ages of 55 and 60 to 66. Of those in the age group between 60 and 66 the number is more in the order of 2,000 to 3,000. These would be people on the full rate.

What are the prospects of employment for people in that age group? I understand they are very low. Would the Minister, in the light of the relatively small numbers involved, and in the light of the very low prospects of employment for the elderly long-term unemployed, consider extending the retirement allowance scheme to include people aged 55? That would at least be a step on the way to what I am seeking.

I would certainly consider going to 58 since that is a figure which applies across other areas of the Department schemes. I would be very anxious to make the scheme available but I would not like it to be thought that people over that age are being written off. It is just that these are the realities of the situation and many may want to avail of that. I had a man aged 79 at my clinic yesterday morning and his main problem was that he was taking a job as a cleaner and was worried about whether he would lose his medical card. In fact, he would go over the income limits for the medical card with the job. While I am anxious to provide the facility, I would not like it to be thought that we were writing people off, because that is not the case.

That is not the intention.

I would urge the Minister to go even further than Deputy O'Keeffe wants him to go by agreeing with me that the signing-on procedure does not act as a deterrent against fraud and should be abolished because it is degrading for the unemployed to have to go through this procedure.

We are having an extension of the question.

It is a very considerable extension of it. I undertook a programme in the middle of 1987 to computerise the system. That is well underway now and this will, of course, create the facility for more flexible arrangements which we will have to look at again when the system is up and running. We will have to consider that matter in due course.

Arising from the Minister's reply, am I to take it that the pre-retirement scheme he announced 12 months ago is not yet in operation?

The pre-retirement allowance.

Is it not yet in operation?

No. Difficulties arose in the first instance with the unions in operating the scheme and they have been ironed out with patience.

When will it be in operation?

At this stage it is purely administrative and I am anxious to have it in operation fairly quickly.

It is not before time.

There are some minor adjustments in the forthcoming Bill.