Paul Connaughton (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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97. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the reason special needs assistants, contracted to work 37.11 hours per fortnight plus 48 Croke Park agreement hours per annum, cannot access family income supplement even though they must work over 38 hours per fortnight; her plans to change this anomaly; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36864/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full-time paid employment as an employee which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. A couple may combine their hours of employment to meet the qualification criteria. Furthermore, the average family income must be below a specified amount which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family.

The “full-time” employment condition has been a fundamental part of the FIS payment since its introduction in 1984. The number of hours worked in order to satisfy this “full-time” condition in legislation has been reduced considerably from 30 hours per week when the scheme was set up to the present requirement of 38 hours a fortnight or 19 hours a week.

If the Deputy has in mind a particular case, I would advise that the person apply for FIS in the normal way and then their specific hours of work can be checked in detail and an assessment made as to their eligibility for FIS.

Otherwise, I have no immediate plans to make any significant changes to the qualifying criteria for FIS. Further reducing the “hours worked” requirement could have expenditure implications and could only be decided on in a budgetary context.