Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

The total of 432,907 recipients of jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, at an estimated 2012 cost of €3.57 billion, currently includes some 80,000 casual workers. It is recognised that a changing labour market has resulted in a move away from the more traditional work patterns, with a consequent increase in the number of atypical workers. In fact many large employers have a lot of part-time workers who are also being paid by my Department. In acknowledgement of this trend, the Department conducted a review of the application of the unemployment benefit and assistance schemes conditions to workers who are not employed on a full-time basis in 2006, which examined the application of the jobseeker's benefit and allowance scheme conditions to workers who are employed on a part-time, casual or systematic short-time basis.

The review made a number of recommendations which are currently under consideration by a cross-functional departmental working group. These considerations are complex and are taking place in the context of other social welfare reforms, the current economic situation, and the considerable administrative and IT change that implementation proposals based on these recommendations will require. The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education published its report, "A review of the status of casual workers in Ireland" in May 2012. The report is written in the context of the work of my Department in this area and makes a number of constructive suggestions, including a recommendation that entitlement to jobseeker's payments be based on an hourly rather than the current daily system. The content of the report will inform my Department's considerations.

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