Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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133. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if a person (details supplied) in Dublin 10 who is in receipt of jobseeker's allowance is entitled to the Christmas bonus. [47904/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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To satisfy the eligibility criteria for the Christmas bonus, the person concerned must have been in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance for a minimum of 390 days on 26/11/2014, the commencement date of the payment week in which the bonus payment fell due. The person concerned had only been paid jobseeker’s allowance for 362 days up to this date and therefore does not qualify for payment of the Christmas bonus.

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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134. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will ensure that the changes made to the Christmas bonus are payable to all social welfare recipients and not just those on jobseeker's payments. [47928/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Christmas bonus was introduced in 1980 and was paid annually (at varying rates) until it was abolished in 2009. I was pleased to be in the position to partially restore the bonus this year. A 25% bonus was paid in the first week of December to social welfare recipients such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and the long-term unemployed, in recognition of the fact that the majority of these recipients are wholly or mostly dependent on their weekly payment.

The bonus was paid this year to the beneficiaries of all schemes to which the bonus previously applied. It should be noted that a Bonus was never payable to recipients of certain schemes such as jobseeker’s benefit and illness benefit and similar arrangements apply this year. The bonus was extended to long-term jobseekers in 1985 with the condition that the jobseeker must be in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment for 15 months in order to be eligible for payment. This condition continues to apply this year.

A list of the schemes eligible for the bonus this year is available on the Departmental website at .