Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made a point about the pandemic unemployment payment being dependent on the level of earnings that recipients were paid previously and making a percentage of those earnings available to them. It is something that, during normal times, if we had not been dealing with a pandemic payment, there might well have been an opportunity to do. We will need to consider for the future whether there is a way of ensuring the level of income support that one gets if one loses one's job better mirrors what one's average earnings were before one lost one's job.

As the Deputy said, we brought this scheme in over a matter of days. The great fear that the Government, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, and I had at the point at which the scheme was brought in related to what would happen in our Intreo office when hundreds of thousands of citizens would have been approaching to look for that payment. We would have had an issue with how those applications would have been processed and how long that would take. That is one of the reasons the Government decided to go for a flat-rate payment of €350.

As for the issues the Deputy raised regarding those who are below the age of 18 and over the age of 66, the reason for that is the pandemic payment mirrors absolutely the way in which we make jobseeker's payments available. Anybody who is under the age of 18 or over the age of 66 does not receive a jobseeker's payment and we made the pandemic unemployment payment available on the same basis.

As I have stated before in the House in respect of those who are over the age of 66, it is open to them to go to their local social welfare office if they believe the payment they need to get needs to be adjusted in light of the fact that their income has also fallen dramatically. It is open to them to make the case for looking for the change in payment.

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