Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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57. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of casual part-time employees in receipt of social welfare payments, such as jobseeker's allowance, jobseeker's benefit and family income supplement, grouped by the 20 largest private sector employers and occupation type; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8369/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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At the end of January 2017, there were 59,480 casual workers on the Live Register. Equivalent figures for all months from May 2002 to January 2017 are published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), based on returns made to them by my Department, in Table 7 of the Live Register statistical release (available at ).

A tabular statement giving a breakdown of this total by last held occupation prior to commencement of Jobseeker claim is attached. This occupational breakdown for casual workers on the Live Register is fully consistent with the occupational breakdown for the Live Register as a whole published in Table 5 of the CSO’s Live Register statistical release. I note, however, that this table may not reflect the current occupational status of casual workers where this is different from their stated last held occupation at claim commencement.

Meanwhile, I regret that the breakdown requested by 20 largest employers is not available in my Department.

In relation to other benefits payable by my Department, I note the CSO’s definition of ‘casual and part time workers’:People who work for part of a week may be eligible for Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance and may also be included on the Live Register, if the Department of Social Protection is satisfied that they are not in full-time employment, are available for work and are looking for full-time employment.

This definition excludes Systematic Short Time workers in receipt of Jobseeker’s Benefit (there were 663 such people at the end of January 2017), as well as all those who are in receipt of benefits which allow the recipient to work or study full-time while retaining benefit eligibility, such as Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Back to Education Allowance or One-Parent Family Payment.

In particular, only people who work 38 or more hours per fortnight in a job which is likely to last at least 3 months are eligible to receive Family Income Supplement, so that it is not possible for a casual worker to be in receipt of this benefit.

Table 1 - Casual Workers on the Live Register by Last Held Occupationand payment type,

January 2017