S.I. No. 241/1966:

SOCIAL WELFARE (UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT) (CONTRIBUTIONS AND ADDITIONAL CONDITION) REGULATIONS, 1966.

SOCIAL WELFARE (UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT) (CONTRIBUTIONS AND ADDITIONAL CONDITION) REGULATIONS, 1966.

I, CAOIMHGHÍN Ó BEOLÁIN, Minister for Social Welfare, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by sections 3 and 7 and subsection (5) of section 17 of the Social Welfare Act, 1952 (No. 11 of 1952), hereby make the following Regulations:--

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Social Welfare (Unemployment Benefit) (Contributions and Additional Condition) Regulations, 1966.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation on the 31st day of October, 1966.

3. In these Regulations, "reckonable employment contributions" means contributions paid in respect of a female employed contributor under the Second Schedule to the Social Welfare Act, 1952 , otherwise than under paragraph 5 of that Schedule (inserted by the Social Welfare (Modifications of Insurance) Regulations, 1956 ( S.I. No. 236 of 1956 )) or under paragraph 3 of that Schedule in so far as that paragraph relates to the employment specified in paragraph 7 of Part I of the First Schedule to the said Act.

4.--(1) Subject to the provisions of sub-article (3) of this article, it shall be an additional condition with respect to the receipt of unemployment benefit in respect of any day by a female employed contributor who is under sixty-five years of age and whose usual employment is mainly in agriculture or in domestic service that ten years shall have elapsed since the date of her entry into insurance and that there shall have been paid by or in respect of her in respect of the ten years immediately preceding such day a yearly average of reckonable employment contributions of not less than--

(a) forty, where her age does not exceed thirty years;

(b) thirty-five, where her age exceeds thirty years but does not exceed fifty years;

(c) thirty, where her age exceeds fifty years.

(2) Where the additional condition specified in sub-article (1) of this article is satisfied as respects any day it shall continue to be regarded as satisfied in respect of any subsequent day which is in the same period of interruption of employment.

(3) A female employed contributor whose usual employment was employment in agriculture or in domestic service shall not be subject to the provisions of sub-article (1) of this article in respect of any day where before that day and since she was last so employed she has become regularly engaged in some other occupation and not less than twenty-six employment contributions reckonable for the purpose of the contribution conditions for unemployment benefit have been paid in respect of her since such change of occupation.

5. A female employed contributor whose employment was in agriculture or domestic service during the whole or any part of the period commencing on the 5th July, 1965, and ending on the 30th October, 1966, shall, for the purpose of the contribution conditions for unemployment benefit, be credited with an employment contribution in respect of each week in that period for which an employment contribution reckonable for the purpose of the contribution conditions for unemployment benefit has not already been paid or credited for her.

6. The Social Welfare (Unemployment Benefit) (Additional Condition) Regulations, 1959 ( S.I. No. 200 of 1959 ) are hereby revoked.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 26th day of October, 1966.

CAOIMHGHÍN Ó BEOLÁIN.

Minister for Social Welfare.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

By virtue of sections 11 and 12 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1966 (No. 24 of 1966), and of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1966 (Appointed Day) Order, 1966, ( S.I. No. 225 of 1966 ), the social insurance of female employed contributors whose employment is mainly in agriculture or domestic service is extended with effect from 31st October 1966 to include an element of cover against unemployment.

The main purpose of these Regulations is to lay down an additional condition which must be fulfilled by the contributors in question before they can qualify for the receipt of unemployment benefit. Transitional provision is also made in the Regulations for the grant of credited contributions to such persons in certain circumstances.