Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

As we get towards the end of this Dáil session, I appeal to the Taoiseach on an issue I have raised a number of times over the past few weeks. Despite his promises that there would not be a PUP income cliff for those who have lost income or employment as a result of the pandemic and who are still significantly impacted by the pandemic and the lack of recovery in their sectors, such a cliff is being imposed on them. A taxi driver, musician, artist or performer who is on the €203 rate of PUP will, as of 7 September, be told to get off it and to go on jobseeker's allowance. People in this situation are not jobseekers but are instead still waiting for the proper and full recovery of their sector.

There is still no roadmap for musicians, performers and artists and much of the work of taxi drivers depends on precisely those sectors and other areas such as tourism. It is not right to force these people onto jobseeker's allowance. Some taxi drivers are on the €203 rate because they purchased a car in 2019 and, therefore, did not pay as much tax that year as in previous years. They are now on a lower rate of PUP and will now be pulled off the payment, even though they cannot make a proper income, or will be forced to go onto jobseeker's allowance when they are not jobseekers.

There are similar issues for musicians and artists who go on the Government's pilot live performance support scheme. If you take a few gigs on that scheme and your income briefly goes above the threshold, you are cut off the PUP, even though in a few weeks' time, you will have no work at all and you will be forced to go on jobseeker's allowance. I am appealing to the Taoiseach on this. There may be other people in a similar position but these two cohorts should not be pushed over a cliff in September or November when there has not been a full recovery of their sectors.

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