Last year when the Government was talking about cutting the PUP, I asked the Taoiseach's predecessor, the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, a very simple question, which he refused to answer. I hope the Taoiseach will give me a straight answer to a straight question. If he thinks the €350 pandemic unemployment payment is too high, will he at least agree to live on that until he cuts it in September? Today, a series of Ministers, who are highly overpaid - these people are on more than €350 per day, never mind per week - have talked about how we need to cut back on the PUP. Those who are on PUP want to be back at work but we all know that, by September, many people will still be unemployed against their choice and whole industries will be shut down. Will the Taoiseach agree to go on €350 if he thinks it should be cut?

We are extending the pandemic unemployment payment out to September and then gradually easing out of that into February of next year. The pandemic unemployment payment will have been in place for two years before it ceases. The overwhelming purpose of Government is to create employment opportunities for people who are unemployed or who are on the PUP. Very substantial resources are being allocated as a result of the economic recovery plan that was published today to enable people to secure employment, not just in areas where they had previously been employed but perhaps also in new areas, and very substantial resources have been provided for training, upskilling and reskilling programmes. Close to €4.5 billion is being allocated to a range of measures-----

Thank you, Taoiseach.

Some 315,000 workers will be supported through the extension of employment wage subsidy scheme, for example-----