Ms Patricia Callan:

It is. I did a piece of work on this that I will send to the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation separately about direct member experience. It is not just in this area. It relates to the general principle of how the welfare system works. We need to move to an hour-based system. The reality is our system derives from the concept of the five-day week. Most businesses operate a seven-day week and, for example, nursing homes need people for a few hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon. The system, therefore, needs to be redesigned in the sense that it should not hamper anyone to take up employment. Signing on or off should be fluid. If the welfare system can be integrated more directly with the Revenue, given employers are supplying Revenue with the relevant information when they set up employees on the tax system, it should be a simple process to offset one against the other to ensure people do not lose out. However, seasonal sectors such as the fishing industry present huge problems in terms of practical details. Even where up to three months' work is available, there is no incentive for people to take it up.