Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue, which is very important to seasonal workers in south west Donegal, particularly those working in the fishing industry. I want to address three matters in the time available. They concern the changes to entitlement for jobseeker's benefit that have taken place, some due to budget 2012.

The first matter is the qualifying conditions for jobseeker's benefit. As the Minister knows, jobseeker's benefit is paid for nine months in the year. The impact of the changes in the qualifying criteria and the implementation of the nine-month period has come home to roost in the past six or eight months in the south west Donegal area in that qualifying people have to move to jobseeker's allowance, which is a means-tested payment, after jobseeker's benefit has ended. A number of people, particularly couples, do seasonal work in the fishing industry, and one couple I know of lost over €150 a week when they changed over to the means-tested assessment. They lost the entitlement initially on jobseeker's allowance and child dependant allowance for children in full-time education. This is having a severe impact, and it will have an even more severe impact in the coming years as these changes bed in, so to speak.

The second matter is that of subsidiary employment and entitlement to jobseeker's benefit. It is linked to the same period, but in south west Donegal and many other rural areas, many farmers are part-time farmers who work in fish processing factories to supplement their income from farming. When they become unemployed and subject to an assessment for jobseeker's benefit, this comes in under subsidiary employment from their farming income. The requirements are that they cannot have an income of more than €12.70 per day from the subsidiary employment. They have no problem with that because they are all small farmers and they get a very low income from that. However, there is also the requirement that they must have paid 117 PRSI contributions in the preceding three years, and because of the seasonal nature of the work and the impact of quotas, whereby the working season has been shortened, it is virtually impossible for them to have the 117 paid contributions. That means they will have to depend on a means-tested payment, which will have a severe impact in terms of allowing them to avail of seasonal work in the area. It is some of the only work available across Donegal.

The third item is more of an administrative matter. The Department recently introduced scannable dockets for seasonal workers in the Killybegs local social welfare office, which means they have to go to their employers every week to have their dockets signed and stamped. That creates a severe burden on them, because many workers might have to take a 30 mile round trip to get their dockets signed and stamped by their employer. While it may reduce the administrative burden on the Department, it increases the burden on employers and increases the difficulty for the workers in having the docket signed.

Those are the changes that have been implemented in the past while but, with some tweaking, the Minister could make it easier for people to manage on jobseeker's benefit.

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