Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 419: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his proposals to abolish the up to nine weeks disallowance of unemployment benefit which applies to workers who become redundant depending on the amount of their lump sum redundancy payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31969/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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In order to target available resources more effectively, the Social Welfare Act, 1992 introduced a provision whereby a person who received a redundancy payment over €15,240 (£12,000) would be disqualified from receipt of jobseekers benefit (previously unemployment benefit) for a maximum of nine weeks, depending on the level of the award. Claimants over 55 years of age are exempt from this 'no fault' disqualification. The threshold was increased to €19,046.07 (£15,000) from May 1994.

It should be noted that, due to the application of the disqualification on a gradual basis, a person must receive a sum in excess of €69,850 in order to attract the maximum nine week disqualification prior to payment.

While all such provisions and thresholds are kept under review, any proposal to amend the provisions regarding entitlement following receipt of a redundancy payment could only be considered in a budgetary context and in the light of competing priorities.