Crickets.
As stated on the recent Prime Time debate, President Michael D. Higgins was not in attendance on The Tonight Show as Matt Cooper and Ivan Yates debated all the pertinent issues with the remaining presidential candidates.
On this note, a question about the exact figure that an individual is allowed to get on the Jobseeker’s Allowance had every candidate perplexed.
With regards to the concept of holding the Government to account and addressing the Houses of the Oireachtas, Peter Casey said that “he’d absolutely” love the chance.
He added: “You can see what I’ve been able to achieve in the last week in terms of stimulating debate. I would be a person who would represent the minorities and somebody who would speak out.”
The topic then switched to the issue of social welfare and Yates asked Casey if he knew how much an individual receives on Jobseeker’s Allowance.
After taking a few seconds to gather his thoughts and answer, he replied by saying: ” I don’t”.
Casey was then asked to guess the Jobseeker’s Allowance figure for a single person that’s 30-year-old and living alone. He was unable to provide an answer.
Only a few days ago, the businessman suggested that Ireland has become a “welfare state” and that Ireland is becoming a “nation of people who expect – no, demand – that the State looks after them”.
Yates then asked “does anyone on the panel know?,” expecting one of the other presidential candidates to interject with an answer.
Nobody replied with one.
Gavin Duffy was then directly asked if he knew the figure that someone gets from the Jobseeker’s Allowance. He said that it was €96.
After being told that the figure is €196 by Cooper and Yates, Duffy immediately said: “Oh, sorry. I meant €196.”
FYI, although the figure varies with regards to age and family circumstance, €198 is the correct figure in this circumstance.
https://twitter.com/Steve_today75/status/1055196647251238922
Info via Citizens Information
The questioning then changed because Duffy was asked if he knew what the price of a litre of milk is.
He stated that two litres of milk costs €2.76.
Liadh Ní Riada quickly interjected and said “well, it depends on whether you shop in Lidl, or Aldi, or Tesco. That’s where I shop, not like the millionaires that probably have their shopping done for them.”
With regards to this line of questioning, Yates said that it was designed to see if any of the candidates could resonate with the ordinary Irish person.
When Yates reminded the panel that none of them offered an answer with regards to the Jobseeker’s Allowance amount, they all defended their position and argued that they provided an answer.
As you can see here (32:10 mark), Yates throws the question to the whole panel and none of them provide an answer.
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