Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I disagree fundamentally with the Deputy. We have not introduced a cliff edge. The opposite is the case. We have extended the PUP to September, following which there will be a phasing out of it out to next February, which will be second anniversary of the introduction of the payment. By then the payment will have been in place for two years. It was originally introduced for 12 weeks. That was the original timeframe the then Government put in place for the PUP. The pandemic has lasted much longer than that, obviously.

We want to create employment opportunities for people. I agree 100% that people want to work. There is no suggestion by Government or anybody that there is any abuse of the payment. Rather, we are saying that we now have to reorientate the economy and reallocate and target resources for growth and for economic recovery. That means creating substantial funding for work placement programmes, training programmes, education and higher education. For example, we want to create new jobs in retrofitting in the private sector in private housing, but also in the public sector through direct grants. We will need skill sets to enable us to do that comprehensive programme for retrofitting across the country in terms of our housing stock. People will have to retrain and reskill to do that type of work.

Likewise, a substantial allocation will be provided for the re-wetting of bogs. There will be new opportunities in the economy. It is about what we do now as we emerge from the pandemic and people naturally come off the PUP, as they will, and are, in significant numbers. It should be remembered that all the while we are supporting workers in employment as well through extensions of the employment wage subsidy scheme and the Covid restrictions support scheme. The orientation of the plan is to support workers to retain the jobs they are in and are currently being subsidised and to give companies a fighting chance to retain those jobs and enhance them, and, by enhancing them, recruit people.

I will make one final point. Deputy McDonald made the point that Government has stopped people from going to work. The Government has not stopped anybody from going to work; the Covid-19 virus has stopped people from going to work and it caused the most severe and rapid recession since the wars across the world. Government has responded comprehensively to this pandemic and in a very effective way. We have underpinned income and jobs to the best of its ability and we will continue to do that, but we are moving into a new phase in economic recovery. That new phase involves the targeting and allocation of resources that can create new opportunities in new sectors of the economy, and, crucially, more support for sectors, such as aviation, tourism, the arts and live events, in the coming months, which is what we are doing in the allocation of resources.

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