Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 318: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs further to Parliamentary Question Number 42 of 10 May 2006, if he will confirm whether, in a case where a fire-fighter must seek employment within the geographical area of his or her retainer contract with a local authority, such a contract could be used by a deciding officer to determine that this is an unreasonable restriction on the location of the employment he or she is prepared to accept. [23820/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Social Welfare legislation provides that a person must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work in order to be entitled to unemployment benefit or assistance. Any person who fails to satisfy these conditions on an on-going basis is not entitled to an unemployment payment.

Part-time fire-fighters are entitled to an unemployment payment in respect of days that they are engaged in fire-fighting or training. They are, however, required to satisfy the statutory conditions for the receipt of an unemployment payment i.e. they must continue to be available for and genuinely seeking work and, in this respect, Deciding Officers do not treat them differently to any other unemployment benefit or assistance claimant.

In applying the legislation, Deciding Officers have regard to the availability of job vacancies in the locality, the age and educational qualifications together with the family circumstances of the particular claimant. Regard is also had to the extent to which a claimant has sought to take advantage of existing labour market opportunities in their locality.

The legislation does not impose any restriction or limitation on the right of a person to the opportunity to engage in the employment of his or her choice. Where a person is seeking work in his or her usual employment and there is a reasonable prospect of securing work of that nature she or he would normally satisfy the conditions for receipt of payment.

After a period of unemployment, a person must be prepared to accept any employment for which she or he is qualified. It is a cardinal principle of the availability for work condition that a person's unemployment must be involuntary and it is not possible for an unemployed person to hold herself or himself available exclusively for employment that is within a restricted distance from a fire station where she or he is employed as a part-time fire person. Such action would be taken as placing an unreasonable restriction on his/her availability to secure full-time employment.

While the importance of retained fire brigade personnel is fully recognised, the introduction of special arrangements exempting them from the requirements to fulfil any of the statutory conditions for entitlement to unemployment benefit or assistance would raise equity issues vis-À-vis other claimants to unemployment payments and there are no current plans to make any changes to this legislation