Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise an issue but first let me make this point. It is not a joke. When somebody requests an official secret document from the Tánaiste and he decides to destroy or delete that record and not pass it on to his Department, it is not a joke. I just want to make that point. It is not finished yet. We need those records released: the contract the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris, gave the Tánaiste, the contract he got from the Secretary General and all communication. It should be done at this stage. We have been requesting it for the last 48 hours.

We have been contacted by numerous people who have lost their jobs and have been denied the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP, by the Department because the Department has no record of their PRSI contributions. These are people who previously lost their jobs during the first lockdown and were in receipt of PUP. Deputy Claire Kerrane has been informed that over 4,000 applicants were denied on this basis last week alone. I am aware of people who lost their jobs as a result of Covid public health restrictions almost a month ago whose cases were only resolved this week and after a month they only got one week's payments.

I am asking for three things: to establish the number of applicants who were denied PUP due to this issue, to conduct an urgent review of all these cases and ensure they get their payments quickly and then to publish guidelines to employees, employers and departmental staff so there is clarity in this regard.

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