PART III

Amendments to Existing Schemes

8. —(1) Section 24 (inserted by section 19 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after subsection (1) of the following subsection:

“(1A) Regulations may provide for entitling to maternity allowance, subject to such conditions and in such circumstances as may be prescribed, such class or classes of women who would be entitled thereto but for the fact that the conditions set out in subsections (1) (b) and (1) (c) are not satisfied.”.

(2) Section 26 (inserted by section 19 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (3) of the following subsection:

“(3) In this section ‘reckonable weekly earnings’ means the average amount, calculated in accordance with regulations, of reckonable earnings and such other income as may be prescribed, received in a week up to such limit as may be prescribed.”.

(3) Subsection (2) of this section shall come into operation on such day as the Minister may appoint by order.

9. —Section 89 (as amended by section 9 of the No. 2 Act of 1987) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (2) of the following subsections:

“(2) In this section ‘relevant date’ means—

(a) any date subsequent to the completion of one year of continuous incapacity for work, or

(b) such lesser period as may be prescribed, subject to such conditions and in such circumstances as may be prescribed,

where the insured person has entered into a continuous period of incapacity for work and he is subsequently proved to be permanently incapable of work.

(2A) Regulations for the purposes of subsection (2) of this section shall be subject to the sanction of the Minister for Finance.”.

10. —Section 125 (2) (as amended by section 9 of the Act of 1991) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after paragraph (e) of the following paragraph:

“(f) subject to paragraph (a), where a person is in receipt of a carer's allowance and the relevant pensioner in respect of whom that carer is providing full-time care and attention, dies, and the carer is the spouse of that pensioner, any benefit payable under paragraph (a) shall include an increase in respect of an adult dependant provided that the person in receipt of the carer's allowance would otherwise have qualified as an adult dependant but for the fact that he was in receipt of the said allowance.”.

11. —Section 2 (as amended by section 15 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after subsection (1) of the following subsection:

“(1A) For the purposes of determining the entitlement of a person to an increase in respect of an adult dependant, references to a spouse in the definition of ‘adult dependant’ contained in subsection (1) and regulations made thereunder shall be construed as meaning each person of a married couple who are living together, or a man and woman who are not married to each other but are cohabiting as husband and wife.”.

12. —(1) Section 22 (1) (inserted by section 55 of the Act of 1991) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for paragraph (b) of the following paragraph:

“(b) before that day has been entitled, in respect of any period of interruption of employment (whether including that day or not) during the period beginning on the date one year immediately prior to that day, to disability benefit for 312 days,”.

(2) This section shall apply to any claim for disability benefit which is made on or after the 5th day of April, 1993.

13. —(1) Section 146 (1) (inserted by section 27 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution for subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of the following subparagraph:

“(ii) any moneys received by way of benefit, pension, assistance, allowance or supplement under Part II, III, IV or IVA,”,

(b) the insertion after subparagraph (xii) of the following subparagraph:

“(xiii) such amount as may be prescribed of all moneys earned by him in respect of current personal employment under a contract of service;”, and

(c) the deletion of paragraph (f).

(2) Regulations for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section shall be subject to the sanction of the Minister for Finance.

14. —(1) The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after section 140 (inserted by section 27 of the Act of 1992) of the following section:

“Disqualifications.

140A.—(1) A person shall not be entitled to receive unemployment assistance while attending a course of study, other than in such circumstances and subject to such conditions and for such periods as may be prescribed.

(2) In this section—

‘academic year’ means a period in which a course of study commences in one year and finishes in the next following year and includes term vacations;

‘a course of study’ means, subject to subsection (3), a full-time day course of study, instruction or training at an institution of education;

‘institution of education’ means—

(a) a school,

(b) a university,

(c) a college of a university,

(d) any institution which the Minister for Education has designated in regulations made pursuant to section 1 of the Higher Education Authority Act, 1971 , as an institution of higher education for the purposes of that Act,

(e) any institution to which the National Council for Education Awards Act, 1979 , applies,

(f) any institution established under the Regional Technical Colleges Act, 1992 ,

(g) any institution incorporated under the Dublin Institute of Technology Act, 1992 ,

(h) any institution which is not an institution for the purposes of paragraphs (a) to (g) and to which the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1968 to 1992 apply, or

(i) such other institution as may be prescribed.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be regarded, subject to regulations made under subsection (1), as attending a course of study—

(a) for the period of three months immediately following the completion or the leaving by that person of second level education or the completion of the Leaving Certificate Examination of the Department of Education, (whichever is the later),

(b) for the duration of an academic year, or

(c) for the period immediately following the completion of one academic year, other than the final academic year of a course of study, up to the commencement of the following academic year.”.

(2) Section 2 (1) (as amended by sections 15 and 27 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion in paragraph (a) of the definition of “qualified child” after “is under the age of 18 years” of “or is of or over the age of 18 years and is regarded as attending a course of study within the meaning of section 140A (3) (a),”.

(3) Section 201 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection:

“(1) A person shall not be entitled to receive supplementary welfare allowance while attending a course of study within the meaning of section 140A.”.

15. —(1) Section 138 (inserted by section 27 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after subsection (6) of the following subsection:

“(7) For the purposes of this section, a reference to ‘unemployment assistance’ shall be construed as including a reference to pre-retirement allowance.”.

(2) Section 156B (as amended by section 40 of the Act of 1990) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution in subsection (1) for “Subject to subsection (2)” of “Subject to this section and section 138”.