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

I propose to take Questions Nos. 76, 78, 79, 83, 86, 87, 102, 113, 116, 118, 127, 142, and 558 together.

I thank the Deputies for raising this important issue. As the Deputies are aware, the pandemic unemployment payment is an income support provided for employees and the self-employed who were in employment on or after 13 March 2020 and who lost employment as a direct consequence of the public health restrictions to address the adverse health outcomes from the Covid-19 pandemic. The scheme is scheduled to remain open until 30 June 2021. Since the payment began, more than 865,000 workers have received a payment under the PUP. To date, more than €7.5 billion has been spent on the PUP since it was first introduced. Total expenditure for the scheme between 13 April 2021 and 11 May 2021 was €520 million.

Many Deputies have requested in their questions information on the number of PUP recipients and expenditure amounts at county level. These statistics form part of the reply, and are provided in a table for the record of the House.

The total number of PUP recipients on 11 May was 377,000. This is the tenth consecutive week in which the PUP numbers have fallen and since 9 February, there are 105,000 fewer workers in receipt of this scheme. I remind the House that last year, when the public health restrictions were eased, the total number receiving income support from PUP reduced from more than 600,000 to over 200,000 over a period of 20 weeks. As restrictions continue to ease in the coming months, further large reductions in the number of PUP recipients are anticipated. The very latest PUP figures are being published today and show that the total number of PUP recipients has fallen further in the past week by 13,498 to 363,167. As I noted, I envisage that the wider re-opening of the economy this week will be reflected in further reductions in the numbers claiming the payment in the coming weeks.

Dealing directly with Deputy Flaherty's question on County Longford, the total number of recipients since the introduction of PUP in Longford was 6,497, which represented an expenditure of €51.4 million into the county. The number of recipients at the week ending 13 April was 2,781 and as of 11 May, it is down to 2,452.

On the figures for County Carlow for Deputy Murnane O'Connor, the total was 10,082 with an expenditure into the county of €79.5 million. The number of recipients at the end of April were 4,151 and as of 11 May, there were 3,680 people in receipt of PUP. There are further fresh figures out this evening and I will provide those figures to the Deputy later. The estimated expenditure for the week ending 11 May into Carlow was €1.1 million. We will send out this report, which gives a list-by-list account of all the counties, the total number of people in receipt of the PUP and the estimated expenditure to which this amounted.

It has all the details and I am sure it will be helpful.

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