Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I will be sharing time. Working in the arts is probably the most precarious of precarious jobs. The sector has been extremely hard hit by the Covid-19 restrictions. The National Campaign for the Arts, NCFA, has said that 68% of its members have been relying on the pandemic unemployment payment and have been severely impacted by the reductions introduced last month and in July. Many artists and those working in the arts make a living through a combination of self-employed income and PAYE income, probably through a part-time irregular job. However, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection does not allow them to combine the self-employed and PAYE income for consideration in calculating the pandemic unemployment payment.

A number of these workers whose payment was reduced to €203 after the July reduction contacted me. They had appealed on a number of occasions to the Department dealing with the PUP rerating. One woman had been in contact about six times and she contacted me. She had included her tax returns from 2018 and 2019. On the same morning I received an email from the Department's PUP team stating that she was rerated back up to €350, she got another email from the same team stating that she was refused again. I made representations for about 12 of these workers. Every one of them got rerated back up to €350 after they had appealed about six times, which is a very high rate of cases overturned on appeal. It would normally be about one or two out of ten.

It is important for the Minister to step in and support these workers or else they will be absolutely decimated. This will have an impact on them paying for mortgages, rent, electricity, food, etc. If we do not back these workers up now, they will not back us up in the future and they will not thank us for it. It is important for the Minister to intervene to do that.

See this speech in context