Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand the difficulties the sector is facing.

With regard to the pandemic unemployment payment, the Department has always applied a common-sense approach to the condition requiring an applicant to be genuinely seeking work. To be very clear, we do not expect those who are waiting for their jobs to come back to be looking for work. If, however, people have permanently lost their jobs, we are here to help, and that is what we want to do. Some people were wondering whether they could do a gig and whether it would have an impact on their payment. People may do occasional, but not regular, work without it affecting their payment. They can continue to get their pandemic unemployment payment if they do occasional, but not regular, work.

The staff in the Intreo offices will deal with people individually. We are here to be as helpful as we can. We are not here to not help people and not support them when they need support but we want the measure to be as targeted and fair as possible.

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