asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether discussions have yet taken place with the British Government regarding the payment of unemployment insurance benefit to Irish workers who return from Great Britain to Ireland and are unemployed on their return; and if so, whether he will state how the matter now stands.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Irish Workers' Unemployment Insurance.
A conference, attended by officials from Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Burma and this country, opened in London on the 15th of this month for the purpose of discussing general problems of reciprocity in the field of national insurance and working out principles on which reciprocal arrangements should be based. It is expected that discussions with the British authorities in the matter of reciprocal arrangements for unemployment insurance between Great Britain and this country will take place at an early date. I may mention, however, that the British National Insurance Act, 1946, which enables reciprocal arrangements to be made, is not expected to become operative for unemployment insurance before April, 1948.