Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Absolutely. I am always open to any engagement with unions on this. This system was designed for workers who are going to be re-employed relatively quickly. Hopefully in the coming weeks, we will get the first signal of that, because the first cohort of people will be coming to the end of the top payment of 13 weeks. That payment declines as they are no longer employed so to do a full comparison between jobseeker's pay-related benefit and other things will take some time in terms of people's experience and the length of time people are on it. It is designed to assist people as they seek other jobs. The group the Deputy mentioned will be going back to other jobs in September. What I want to do in the immediate term is make sure that their transition is as seamless as possible. I am more than happy to engage with the Deputy, the House and any unions about how we can make that transition much easier. We will also engage with the Deputy in the context of the overall review, which will be in the middle of next year after about a year of jobseeker's pay-related benefit.

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