asked the Minister for Social Welfare why his Department refused to pay unemployment benefit to CIE school bus drivers in County Kerry during the school holiday period when they were unemployed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kerry School Bus Drivers.
19.
Title to unemployment benefit depends on the satisfaction of a number of contribution and other conditions. Detailed information is not readily available as to the outcome of claims in cases of the kind referred to by the Deputy. It can, however, be stated that where claims from school bus drivers in respect of school holiday periods have been refused by the statutory deciding authorities, disallowance has usually been on the grounds that the claimants have other regular occupations of a nature so substantial as to make them unavailable for employment other than for the part-time job of school bus driver.
As far as County Kerry is concerned, there has been a number of instances recently in which initial refusals of benefit on those grounds were reversed on appeal.