Ms Teresa Leonard:

It is a few thousand people.

On the temporary wage subsidy scheme and the employment wage subsidy scheme, as the Chairman is aware, the temporary wage subsidy scheme was a supplement provided to employers for each individual employee to supplement them as a part of their wages so it was paid directly to the employee. The employer could top that up with income to bring it up to a particular level. That was part of the temporary wage scheme. It was paid through an employer for an individual employee and it was attributed to an individual employee. It was put in place to ensure that employers kept their employees attached to the workplace. It was to supplement them with paying wages to keep them attached to the workplace. That was the primary objective of that particular scheme. As such, they are in employment when they are on it and they are not entitled to the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, when they are in employment. The PUP, by its very definition, is for people who have lost employment due to the pandemic because their work has closed or whatever reason. It is because they have lost work because of Covid-19.

On the employment wage subsidy scheme, I either misspoke or I misrepresented what I said. It is an actual supplement to the employer to supplement wages for his or her employees but it is not defined directly to individual employees and, as such, it is not attributed in that manner. It is claimed by the employer for, say, ten employees who fulfil a certain criteria. They get the supplement towards the payment for those ten employees but it is not individually placed on them. It is not compatible with the PUP because the individual is in employment. The PUP is only paid when someone is out of work, when people have been let go because of the pandemic and their employment has been limited as a result of that. It is in regard to jobseeker's that there is compatibility between getting the employment wage subsidy scheme and jobseeker's unemployment benefit. That is in respect of the Aer Lingus workers where their employer may be claiming the employment wage subsidy but they can claim part-time or casual employment with us at the same time. To be clear, the temporary wage subsidy scheme is not compatible with the PUP, neither is the new employment scheme from 1 September, but it is compatible with jobseeker's and they can be paid to someone who has periods of unemployment along with that particular scheme.