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

Over the past number of weeks, many taxi drivers were pushed off the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. In fact, many of them could have stayed on it but voluntarily signed off because their sector was recovering. Now the sector has gone over a cliff because of the night-time curfew, the public health advice for people to reduce social contacts and the work from home provisions. Taxi drivers are being offered nothing. They have got it in the neck from the word go in this pandemic. Every measure that is taken impacts on their ability to make an income. It is not fair that they will again be punished financially and get no supports. We need to give them back the support such that they can earn a little from the bit of work that is out there, while having the income support of the PUP.

Precisely the same goes for musicians, entertainers and people working in events and the night-time economy. It is not fair that, yet again, they get hit. They have been the longest affected and the worst hit - they have been repeatedly hit - but they are denied the right to the PUP. Indeed, while other business supports are maintained, the workers, who depend on the supports and were hit hardest, are hammered and their supports taken away, with no indication from the Government that it intends to restore supports for them and people in similar sectors that are particularly hit by the latest round of public health measures.

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