Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is making a different argument, that everyone should be paid the exact same no matter what job they do. I appreciate that is his political position but it is not one shared by many people in this country.

When we discuss tapering, it is important to bear in mind that the only people who are now getting less than they were earning before the pandemic are those who earned more than €350 a week. Someone who was earning €700, €600 or €500 a week is now receiving the reduced payment of €350. Separate to that, there is a group of people who were not earning €350 a week. All of those who were earning €200 a week, for example, would have been part-time workers rather than full-time workers because full-time workers earning the minimum wage would have been paid more. That group of people is getting paid more than they were paid before the pandemic. Anyone who is talking about tapering is doing so in the context of making sure that any tapering ensures people are not better off than they were before the pandemic. People who earned more than €350 a week are the exception and are already worse off.

See this speech in context