Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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387. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if non-union teachers on short-term contracts will be entitled to claim jobseeker's allowance while their schools are closed due to industrial action; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34600/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The jobseeker’s allowance scheme provides income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2016 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseeker’s allowance scheme of approximately €2.45 billion.

It is open to any individual to make a claim for jobseeker’s allowance at any time. However, jobseeker’s allowance payments compensate for periods of involuntary unemployment only. For this reason social welfare legislation provides that a person must satisfy certain conditions in order to be entitled to jobseeker’s allowance. The qualifying conditions for receipt of jobseeker’s allowance require a person to be unemployed, available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment. Where a teacher is on a short term contact, in full-time employment they would not satisfy the conditionality of being unemployed, available for and genuinely seeking work and therefore would not qualify for jobseeker’s allowance when they are in remunerative employment.

Where these individuals are unable to work as their schools are closed due to industrial action, it is a matter for the Department of Education and Skills in the first instance to determine whether these individuals will continue to be paid. If they are not participating in the industrial action and do not receive payment, they may be eligible for a jobseeker’s payment provided they satisfy the eligibility criteria. However, each case would be decided on a case by case basis and dependent on its individual merits. It should be noted that if an individual is awarded a jobseeker’s payment they will not be paid for their first three days of their jobseeker’s claim.