asked the Minister for Finance if he will consider issuing instructions to the effect that workers whose claims for unemployment benefit are the subject of appeal will, pending decisions on their claims, be eligible for work on minor relief schemes and other relief works.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Eligibility for Work on Relief Schemes.
All unemployed persons are, strictly speaking, eligible for employment on relief works, but unemployed persons who are in possession of unemployment assistance certificates are intended to get an effective preference over all others. Unemployed persons who have an unemployment assistance certificate and who have appealed on the ground that the amount of assistance is insufficient do not lose their right to preference pending decision of the appeal. Persons who have applied for and have been refused an unemployment assistance certificate on any of the statutory grounds are, pending the decision of the appeal, not entitled to preference. It is not now proposed to vary this arrangement.
In cases in which they are starving what is to be done?
Arising out of the Parliamentary Secretary's reply, do I understand that a person to whom a qualification certificate has been issued but who is left without benefit and whose claim may be awaiting decision for three months before he receives any unemployment benefit, may be ineligible for employment? There are cases of that kind. Is not that person in exactly the same position as the person who is actually in receipt of benefit?
My answer is precisely to the question put and it covers it completely.