asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is prepared to give further consideration to the urgent need for establishing reciprocal arrangements with the Government of Northern Ireland for the payment of unemployment insurance benefits to insured persons who are, from time to time, compelled to cross the border, and as a result find themselves deprived of the benefits of insurance schemes towards which they are compelled to contribute both in the Free State and in Northern Ireland; and whether any further proposals for a solution of the difficulty have been made by either the Saorstát or the Northern Ireland Government.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - RECIPROCAL UNEMPLOYMENT ARRANGEMENTS WITH NORTHERN IRELAND.
I can add nothing to the reply I gave to a similar question by Deputy Carney on the 29th February.
Is the Minister aware that under Section 8, sub-section (4) of the Unemployment Insurance Act citizens of the Saorstát had been awarded 150 days' benefit and had become unemployed, and instead of drawing 150 days' benefit, went to England and to Northern Ireland in search of employment. They got employment there and worked for a period extending over 18 months. On returning to the Free State they found that they were debarred from receving the benefit that had already been allotted to them previous to their going to England. Does the Minister not think that this is a great hardship on these citizens of the Saorstát who, instead of knocking around the corners of their native towns, went to a foreign country in search of work? Is the Minister aware that while reciprocal arrangements can be made in the case of the professions, the dental profession, the legal profession and the medical profession, signed by Balfour as representing Great Britain, McGilligan representing the Free State——
The Deputy is now making a speech.
It is all right; it is to the point.
The Deputy must sit down.
And Dawson Bates representing Northern Ireland——
The Deputy must sit down. Next question.