The Government has launched a consultation on plans to link jobseeker's benefit to previous income.
Under the proposed scheme, people with more than five years PRSI payments would get 60 per cent of their previous gross salary on losing their job.
This would be capped at a payment of 450 euro a week and time limited to six months - after which they would drop to 220 a week.
Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys says she believes a graduated approach to jobseekers is the way forward:
"I worked as you know, in financial services and in the Credit Union before I came into politics, and I saw first hand particularly in 2008, 2009, 2010, people who had worked all their lives, and they suddenly found that they were out of a job through no fault of their own, and they have commitments, they have rent, they had a mortgage, they had childcare commitments, and suddenly their income just dropped way, way down".
