Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This has really been rushed through. We welcome support for workers and employers and keeping that connection with the employer. That is accepted. Our view is that there should be two different schemes. One should be for workers who are not producing, at home and not providing to the company. They are basically not working but still connected to the company, which is what the pandemic unemployment payment is for. It should be 100% of net wages up to €525. The second part should be this type of scheme, where workers are in production, working, producing and making profit for the company, even at a time of very low demand. That should require the company to pay a proportion. What I am putting forward today is trying to minimise the risk. I am very conscious of the amount of resources that we will need as a State. This is only in the ha'penny place, compared to what will be required to deal with the health crisis and economic crisis, and the stimulus package that will be needed to restart our economy and support all sectors, from community to charity, from agriculture to sport, and every different sector that will need support in this period. The guidance refers to average weekly earnings from January to February. If somebody was getting €400 in January and February, that person is now left unemployed because the company could not pay €400. The company now says that it will get 70% of that and so is reducing that person's wages to 70%. The person is back working and producing for the company. The company says that it will then mass produce. Since there is only so much demand in the economy in the future, it will probably lay the person off anyway, like any factory would do in a normal environment when it has more stock than demand requires. This is about trying to reduce some of the risks so that we have more resources to deal with other issues that will require resources.

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