1969. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have availed of jobseeker's pay related benefit since its introduction in Cork County, broken down by age cohort, payment band and duration of the claim; the total expenditure to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55926/26]

Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit is a payment for those who become fully unemployed. The payment rate is directly linked to earnings from work before the person became unemployed. Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit may be claimed for up to 9 months, where the person has at least at least 5 years of PRSI contributions from employment. A person may claim Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit for up to 6 months if they have between two and five years of PRSI contributions from employment.

Total expenditure on Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit at national level in 2025 amounted to €297.33 million.

The number of people who received a Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit by quarter, broken down by county is published by my Department in the Quarterly Statistical Report. The number of people in Cork that received a payment, broken down by quarter, is shown in the table below.

Table 1: Total number of people receiving a Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit payment in Cork, by quarter

At the end of June 2026, there were 2,894 recipients of Jobseeker's Pay-Related Benefit in Cork. This figure is not directly comparable with the total number of people who received a payment in the quarter, as provided in Table 1 above.

Of the recipients in Cork at the end of June 2026, 2,478 qualify for Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit for up to 9 months, and 416 qualify for Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit for up to 6 months. The average duration of these recipients was 105 days. The breakdown by age of these recipients is shown in the table below.

Table 2: Number of Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit recipients in Cork at the end of June 2026, by age group