Mr. Rónán Hession:

The €203 rate was introduced at the jobseeker rate initially. The idea at that stage was that PUP would be a six-week scheme. We needed to get money out to people quickly before we were able to put them on to a proper jobseeker scheme. That was the standard rate. The movement to the €350 rate was not so much a commentary on the adequacy of the €203 rate but more a recognition of the fact that it would take longer to do that and people had dependants and so forth.

We do not have numbers on the people availing of the €480 threshold under PUP. People are not required to report that to us. They are required to keep records in case we need to check that. That is why we do not have details available on that.

On the February rate change, the Minister said during the budget that the question will be revisited towards the end of year. Over the coming weeks, the Government will have to assess the current situation in light of the trajectory of the pandemic and the economic situation and then take a position on that February change.

On the question of the working poor and the number on the €203 rate, given the level of the minimum wage at €10.10 an hour and moving to an extra increase in January, the chances are that the people in that cohort are part-time workers. One can only get 20 hours on the minimum wage to be under the €203 threshold. Until recently, the Department was responsible for the national minimum wage. We are conscious of the issues of low-wage jobs, employment rights and ensuring we avoid in-work poverty. Many of our payments continue to be paid as people work, such as working family and jobseeker payments. They allow for a degree of work. We are always mindful of that issue. The €203 threshold is more likely, given the statutory minimum wage, to be a reflection of part-time workers.

On travel, we have not done inspections at airports for quite a number of months and we do not plan to resume them. In the case of the flights that were inspected, a factor was the low level of flights coming in and out of the country at the time. We also did inspections at ports at that time. In terms of the criteria, it was a factor of the inspectors operating at the airports at the time, looking at what flights were available and making a call on the ground.

Since the legislation came in on 5 August, the full cost of PUP has been drawn from the Social Insurance Fund, SIF. The total cost of PUP for this year is €5 billion, along with €94 million. The latter is largely the budget for the Christmas bonus. We are up to €4.3 billion at the moment. Clearly, this is a big draw on the SIF which we had not expected at the beginning of 2020. That clearly is an issue which needs to be examined.