Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 41: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps she will take to ensure that ex-miners are compensated for the health problems that they have suffered after years of exposure to coal; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4567/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Employment under a contract of service as a miner is insurable for occupational injuries benefit under the Social Welfare Acts. Miners who are unable to work due to an accident arising from their employment may be entitled to occupational injury benefit for the first 26 weeks of their claim. The occupational injuries scheme, operated by the Department, provides entitlement to benefit for persons suffering from certain prescribed diseases which are listed in the legislation and where that person has contracted that disease in the course of their employment.

Where a person has contracted one of the diseases listed in the legislation, benefits are payable if they were employed in an occupation which is specifically prescribed in relation to that disease. In addition, benefits may be payable if the claimant can show that the disease was contracted through an employment not specifically prescribed in relation to that disease.

If the incapacity extends beyond the 26 week period, claimants may receive illness benefit or invalidity pension, subject to meeting the qualifying conditions for these payments.

Miners may also be entitled to disablement benefit under the occupational injuries scheme. Disablement benefit is a compensation payment specifically for those who suffer a loss of physical or mental faculty as a result of an accident at work or a disease prescribed in legislation that they contracted at work. Medical assessments are undertaken in all such cases to determine the degree of disablement, which is calculated by comparison of the state of health of the applicant with the norm for a person of the same age and gender.