asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state whether persons with small farms who are compelled to engage in work other than that of farming are obliged to stamp unemployment insurance cards. and, if so, if he is aware that such persons when idle are not entitled to unemployment benefit on the plea that they are not unemployed and unable to obtain suitable employment; whether he is aware that Mr. Andrew Neill, Kill, Castlecomer, who has an uneconomic holding, was debarred from receiving unemployment benefit when unemployed because of these reasons, and whether he will have this case reconsidered with a view to granting benefit.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - SMALL LANDHOLDERS AND UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE.
Contributions under the Unemployment Insurance Act are compulsorily payable in respect of all employment except those specified in Part II. of the First Schedule to the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, as excepted employments, and unemployment benefit is payable under the same Act to all persons who satisfy the statutory conditions contained in Section 7 and are free from the disqualifications specified in Section 8 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920. If an owner of land engages in insurable work he is bound to pay contributions, and the ownership of land does not disqualify an insured contributor from obtaining unemployment benefit. A claim to unemployment benefit made by Andrew Neill, of Kill, Castlecomer. on the 2nd January, 1926, was disallowed on the grounds that the claimant was not unemployed and not unable to obtain suitable employment. Exercising his statutory right, the claimant appealed from that decision to the Court of Referees, which, on the evidence before it, recommended that the claim be disallowed. The insurance officer agreed with this recommendation, and accordingly the claim remains disallowed.