Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Impím ar an Aire tacú i gceart le healaíontóirí agus ceoltóirí na hÉireann go háirithe, agus déanamh cinnte nach mbeadh aon ghearradh siar ar an PUP dóibh siúd atá gafa leis an gcruachás san earnáil seo. Is í an chéad chuid den tsochaí a stop go hiomlán agus is í an ceann deireanach a thiocfaidh ar ais.

I appeal to the Minister to remember the nation's creative minds, including the artists, musicians, film-makers, etc., who eased our journey throughout the Covid-19 crisis with their online contributions. For many thousands of those working in creative fields, the introduction of the PUP in March was very welcome.

Many of those who are self-employed or work as freelancers or others whose diaries were full at the time saw their work all but disappear overnight. Many have been ably represented by the Music & Entertainment Association of Ireland, the Event Production Industry Covid-19 working group, EPIC and other groups or represent themselves. Riggers, stagehands, dancers, security, ticket office staff, lighting, sound and many others make up the artistic and creative community in Ireland. Many of them have had their pandemic unemployment payment cut or substantially reduced, and others are dreading further cuts in August. One person said in a letter to me:

I am not unemployed. I am forced not to be employed as a direct result of Government guidelines.

I read in a newspaper that the Minister said she believed that people should be actively seeking work. If she believes that, will she tell the employers of all of these people that they need to issue P45s and redundancy payments? That would be an absolute scandal and would go against anything that was intended.

I support what Deputy Kerrane said. We should allow the self-employed to make a declaration of their income for 2019 in order that they can be properly assessed on their most recent income for the PUP into the future. We should also remember that many of the self-employed only started their journey on self-employment last year and, therefore, only had declared income from employment and do not have declared income for 2018 unless they were directly employed.

The current rules also mean that a person who takes on a day's work loses the payment. The nature of the creative industry is such that much of the sector will restart one day at a time and will not return to full employment for many months. I ask the Minister to consider changing that provision so that people can take on some type of work. Many have written to me to point out that they will lose opportunities to work for pay or will lose all social welfare payments because they have not filed their tax returns for this year and are not likely to do so in the next couple of months.

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