Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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222. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection her plans, in the assessment of a person's entitlement to a jobseeker's allowance or to a jobseeker's benefit, to extend eligibility to persons who, for very genuine reasons, are only seeking part-time employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36029/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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In order to qualify for either a jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance payment an individual must be available for and be genuinely seeking full time employment. This is a key criterion of the jobseekers schemes.

Any change to the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking full time employment could fundamentally undermine the integrity of the jobseekers schemes. This in turn could lead to a substantial increase in the number of individuals claiming a jobseeker’s payment thereby resulting in a significant increase in Exchequer expenditure.

There are therefore no plans to change such key eligibility condition of either of these payments.