Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said in my initial reply, the legislation was changed in 2013 to reflect the special status of firefighters, which carries through to all of the activation measures in which we engage. As I said, they are in the main a positive experience which result in people who are unemployed getting work or people who are under-employed getting more work.

Those working in any of our activation processes in INTREO, JobPath, jobs clubs, JobsPlus or any other organisation which fulfils contracts for the Department are well aware of the conditions under which firefighters have to work and work around them. I am not sure whether the Deputy is suggesting that we should treat retained firefighting as a full-time job and not help firefighters to get more employment. Is he suggesting that they are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and, therefore, are not available?

If either of those things happen, retained firefighters do not satisfy the conditions of jobseeker's benefit or allowance. A large number of the 482 retained firefighters to whom the Deputy referred rely on jobseeker's benefit or allowance. Therefore, they need to satisfy the conditions in order to avail of those payments, exclusive of any activation programmes.

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