Naoise Ó Muirí (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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598. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if there is an early entry process for the back-to-work enterprise allowance scheme for those people who have completed the required proposal process but fall short of the 234-day jobseeker threshold; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37746/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme offers support for people who are long-term unemployed and who are interested in self-employment as a route to entering the labour market. The scheme supports people in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment to develop a business while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their payment over two years. The Government has provided funding of over €30 million for the scheme in 2025.

To qualify for the scheme a person is required to have received an eligible income support payment for nine months. An applicant who is a part time or casual worker is required to be in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment for 12 months prior to their application and can have worked up to 30 days of insurable employment during that period.

There are no plans to amend the qualifying period for this scheme at this time.

I trust this clarifies the position.

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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599. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of fish assist applications received by his Department; and the number of these applications that were approved in each year from 2014 to date, in tabular form. [37845/25]

Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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600. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of fish assist applications approved in each county in each year from 2014 to date, in tabular form. [37846/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 599 and 600 together.

Fish Assist is a form of Jobseekers Allowance. A self-employed fisherman or woman on a low income may apply for Fish Assist which, in itself, is not a separate scheme but falls under the jobseeker's allowance (JA) scheme.

To enable the accurate enumeration of recipients of Fish Assist, the Department uses a unique administrative code which is applied to a claim that has already been awarded. Statistics are maintained on the total applications, awards, refusals, and withdrawals for Jobseeker’s Allowance but such detailed data is not separately collated in respect of Fish Assist. Accordingly, the data sought cannot be provided in the manner referred to by the Deputy.

The number of Fish Assist recipients by county as of the 31 December of each year from 2014 - 2024 is provided beneath. Note that the figures for some counties were combined to avoid disclosing information about individual customers.