PUP application processing
The Tánaiste said any records held would be provided and brought in the Social Protection Minister. She said staff were dealing with the surge in PUP applications and payments as quickly as possible.
On the first part, we have the request from the Deputy’s party and we will be happy to give him any records we have. I might ask the Minister, Deputy Heather Humphreys, to answer the question on social protection.
Comment on this
The Deputy will appreciate there has been a huge increase in the number of PUP applications in the last number of weeks. The officials in my Department have been working extremely hard in engaging with the applicants in terms of details that were not provided but that we need in order to process the payments. There are a number of applications that we are dealing with. I assure the Deputy we are getting through them as quickly as possible. There were people who claimed but did not have a record, although they did have work, so we are working with them.