Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005

Disqualifications —attending a course of study.

[1993 s126(1)]

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

[1993 s126(2); 2005 (SW&P) s26 & Sch 4]

(2) In this section—

“academic year” means a period in which a course of study begins in one year and finishes in the 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 and Science has designated in regulations made under 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 Qualifications (Education and Training) Act 1999 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) any other institution that may be prescribed.

[1993 s126(3)]

(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 3 months immediately following the completion or the leaving by that person of second level education or the completion by him or her of the leaving certificate examination of the Department of Education and Science, 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 beginning of the following academic year.