Sir, - I wish to comment on P. Lenihan's references to the Social Welfare system (June 16th).
Asylum-seekers qualify for Supplementary Welfare Allowance payments on the same basis as any other person in the State who does not have the financial resources to meet his or her basic needs. Single people receive £72 per week, couples receive £115.20 and people with children receive an additional £13.20 per child per week.
I wish to point out that the total number of asylum-seekers arriving in Ireland so far this year is in fact down 30 per cent on the same period in 1998. On that basis, it would seem that the total for this year is unlikely to exceed 4,000, and not 12,000 as estimated by your correspondent. - Yours, etc.,
Muriel Cleary, Press Officer, Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs, Aras Mhic Dhiarmada, Dublin 1.