Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Second, the amendment proposed is very broad and includes all social welfare payments. For example, if someone was unfairly dismissed and, separately, his or her partner or a relative became unwell and the person availed of carer's benefit or carer's allowance, the amendment would allow that payment to be recouped, even though it had no connection whatsoever with the unfair dismissal. A similar problem would arise were someone to become ill or be disabled and receive disability payments entirely separately from the unfair dismissal. I would see it potentially having merit only in the case of jobseeker's payments, not the other payments. There is, however, merit somewhere in this, which is why I am willing to commit to having the matter examined properly and coming back in the pre-legislative stage of the spring Bill with a proposal or a good reason that would be to the Deputies' satisfaction as to why we cannot introduce this proposal. We can examine if there is a space somewhere to recoup money for the State but not in a way that would reduce the award to the person taking the case in the first place.

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