Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister consider extending eligibility to self-employed people who will be in receipt of illness benefit on a short-term basis, perhaps after December 2017? Many of them are not permanently incapacitated and therefore would not qualify for invalidity pension on those grounds. However, they are temporarily incapacitated and if such a person's spouse happens to be working, he or she would not be entitled to jobseeker's or disability allowance or the means-tested benefits, which can be demeaning.

I ask the Minister about his plans regarding the unemployed and jobseeker's benefit. Has he given consideration to the notion of extending jobseeker's benefit to the self-employed on a voluntary contributions basis?

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