Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This matter was raised with me by people in the entertainment and events industries who wanted to go on one-year courses and retain the PUP. If someone on jobseeker's allowance did a part-time course, he or she could retain it, but a full-time course would remove that eligibility. People in receipt of the PUP and who are in certain industries and want to do something useful during the year should not be disqualified from the PUP if they do a one-year course. I am not referring to people doing three- or four-year degrees. Hopefully, things will be back to normal long before that but people who want to do a one-year course should be allowed to do so because there is no good to be gained from forcing them to sit at home when they could be doing a full-time course online. Obviously, all of these courses are online now and people would not be out and about and breaking the level 5 restrictions.