Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank both Deputies. As I said in relation to the franchisees, the self-employed and the employees of contractors of Fastway, they can apply for jobseekers' payment immediately. We have processed and awarded 56 claims already in relation to that group of people. The work my Department team is doing at the moment is working with receivers, getting records of who is an employee and who is not and who is a franchisee, and getting that level of detail. That has been under way since the company entered into receivership. I thank the staff in my Department who are working on that team. They engaged with this immediately when this issue arose. That team is in place. The offices in the relevant areas are being given resources to deal with this quickly and, most importantly, as they always do, empathetically, particularly given the circumstances of this and to ensure we get decisions turned around quickly. We have done 45 urgent-need payments and 56 jobseekers' claims. That gives a sense of the focus and attention this is getting within the Department.

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