asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he is aware that there is a likelihood of many thousands of our citizens returning to this country from Great Britain in the near future; whether he is aware that the people in question have been engaged in insurable employment in Great Britain and contributed to the unemployment insurance funds in that country; whether in the event of their being unemployed on their return to this country he can say if any steps have been taken to ensure that by reciprocal arrangements or otherwise, the persons concerned will be entitled to unemployment insurance benefit in this country pending their absorption in employment.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Insurance Reciprocity.
I am not aware that there is a likelihood of the return in the near future to this country from Great Britain of any large number of Irish citizens, but I agree that it is probable that many Irish citizens in Great Britain have undertaken work which is insurable under the unemployment insurance legislation of that country. In the absence of reciprocal arrangements between the two countries in relation to unemployment insurance, persons returning to their homes in this country cannot be paid unemployment benefit out of the Unemployment Fund of this country in respect of contributions paid in Great Britain. The Government has always been prepared, and more than once endeavoured without success, to enter into arrangements with the Government of Great Britain whereby unemployment benefit could be paid in one country in respect of contributions paid in the other country. Divergence in unemployment insurance legislation in the two countries renders this matter one of real difficulty, however, and, at the present time, it is highly improbable that any progress will be made on tentative proposals for reciprocity which had been formulated by my Department. I am, however, prepared to renew these proposals if, and when, it appears to me that they are likely to produce satisfactory results.
Is the Minister not aware of the fact that a number of Irishmen may find it necessary to return to this country, in order to avoid the provisions of the Act in Great Britain which renders them liable to conscription in the British armed forces, and will he point out to the British Government, in the further representations that, I understand, he proposes to make, that the least they can do, in return for the services given by these men in the armament industry, is to ensure that these Irish workers will have the benefit of the contributions they are compelled to pay under the British Unemployment Insurance Act?
The matter is not by any means as simple as that, as the Deputy knows.
But the Minister knows that the British are spending £13,000,000 daily on the war, and that the least they ought to do is to ensure that Irish workers, who are compelled to pay unemployment insurance there, will have the benefit of these payments if they are for any reason compelled to return to Ireland.