Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Barry, in accordance with the questions-and-answers format agreed by the Business Committee.

Today, People Before Profit and Solidarity Deputies launched an online petition calling on the Government to abandon plans to cut or taper the €350 pandemic unemployment payment, at least until the pandemic has passed and all the employment losses and economic impacts of the pandemic have been overcome. We also call in our petition for the payment to be extended to groups that have been unfairly excluded, most notably those over 66, those under 18 and those in the gig economy and precarious work. Furthermore, we call for a review because we believe the figure of €350, to which the Government was forced to increase the payment, was an admission that it really is impossible for people to live any kind of dignified existence on a payment below that amount. As Social Justice Ireland have pointed out, a great number of pensioners, jobseekers and people on disability are effectively living on poverty payments.

I am looking for that commitment, particularly in response to the clear hints that have been coming from the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Ms Regina Doherty, about cuts or a tapering of the Covid payment. Would it not be completely unjust to cut further the income of workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own before this pandemic and the full economic impact of job losses are overcome? Will the Taoiseach agree that there will be no cuts or no tapering until we have overcome this pandemic?

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