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

For clarity, this is an Estimate which is being presented to the House on a no-policy-change basis. If any changes are to be made to the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, in future, the Government has not made that decision. Like many Estimates in the past, this allows the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection to continue to pay all social welfare payments - pensions, disability, carers, one-parent family, PUP, all of it - beyond 8 June when the Department will reach 80% of its funding ceiling. If this is not passed, it will not be possible for the Department to continue to pay any social welfare or pension payment from 8 June. It is done on a no-policy-change basis; all we are asking the House is for authorisation to keep paying those payments.

See this speech in context