Pandemic unemployment payment
Deputy Doherty asks whether the current PUP rates will be retained while public health restrictions remain. The Tánaiste says too many people still need the payment and it is too soon to withdraw or phase it out.
Yesterday, my party leader, Deputy McDonald, asked the Taoiseach to clarify the future of the pandemic unemployment supports and stated that for as long as the public health emergency prevents people from going to work, the supports they rely on should be retained in full for the sectors affected. No clarity was provided by the Taoiseach but last night, according to media reports, the Tánaiste shed some light on this issue for his party. I ask him to shed light on it for the Dáil now. Will he give a commitment that the current rates of the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, will remain in place until autumn? Will he commit, as he has done before, that those prevented from going back to work, either in full or in part, as a result of public health restrictions will continue to be supported at the current rates of payment?
Comment on this
There are 334,000 people on the PUP this week. They need that money. In the vast majority of cases, this is because they are unable to go back to their jobs because of the pandemic. In the past week, 25,800 people came off the PUP because they were able to go back to work. That is really encouraging and I want to see that trend continue in the weeks and months ahead. It is my firm view that it is too soon for us to start withdrawing or phasing out the PUP because so many people do not yet have the opportunity to go back to their jobs. People lose entitlement to their payments if they refuse to go back to their jobs, but I imagine that is pretty rare. No firm decision has been made on this matter yet. The economic Cabinet sub-committee, which I chair, will meet this afternoon. We will hear proposals from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, on the employment wage subsidy scheme, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, on the PUP, the Ministers for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Michael McGrath, on commercial rates and other things. We will make a decision at Cabinet next Tuesday and make an announcement thereafter.