TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR wants to revert to an older system of pay-related benefits, whereby workers who lose their job would get 70% of their salary while they look for a new job.

TheJournal.ie reported yesterday that Varadkar plans to link dole payments to PRSI contributions.

Detailing his plans yesterday, Varadkar said he wants Ireland to go back to the system Ireland had in the past, which he said “is now the norm across Europe”.

“If you lose your job for example, if you become sick, if you go on maternity or paternity leave, instead of just getting the same amount there would be a link between the amount you paid in and the amount that you get.

“So if you take somewhere like Denmark or Germany for example if you lose your job in the first couple of weeks you can get up to 60% or 70% of your salary while you go looking for a new job,” he explained.

Varadkar added that in Ireland someone currently in this scenario would only gets about €200 per week.

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Here's the story @thejournal_ie reported on this morning - Leo's plan to link unemployment benefits to the level of contributions. This is sure to cause some controversy pic.twitter.com/LSp2rCDrYn — TheJournal Politics (@TJ_Politics) November 11, 2017 Source: TheJournal Politics /Twitter

Varadkar said the old system is how PRSI began but over the years everything got reduced down to a basic minimum.

We want to change that. The basic minimum should change.

“We’re not suggesting that be cut. But we are saying that people who do pay PRSI for ten or twenty or thirty years, when they lose their job, if they go sick, if they need to take maternity leave or paternity leave they should get a little bit more. It is their money after all,” he said.