Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are 334,000 people on the PUP this week. They need that money. In the vast majority of cases, this is because they are unable to go back to their jobs because of the pandemic. In the past week, 25,800 people came off the PUP because they were able to go back to work. That is really encouraging and I want to see that trend continue in the weeks and months ahead. It is my firm view that it is too soon for us to start withdrawing or phasing out the PUP because so many people do not yet have the opportunity to go back to their jobs. People lose entitlement to their payments if they refuse to go back to their jobs, but I imagine that is pretty rare. No firm decision has been made on this matter yet. The economic Cabinet sub-committee, which I chair, will meet this afternoon. We will hear proposals from the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, on the employment wage subsidy scheme, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, on the PUP, the Ministers for Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputies Darragh O'Brien and Michael McGrath, on commercial rates and other things. We will make a decision at Cabinet next Tuesday and make an announcement thereafter.

See this speech in context