Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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358. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if consideration will be given to extending the eligibility for the pandemic unemployment payment beyond 7 September 2021 for third-level students who previously worked in the live music sector but cannot do so at the present time due to Covid-19 given the nature of their employment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34292/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was introduced as an emergency measure in March 2020 for people who lost employment due to Covid 19. To date expenditure on the scheme is over €8 billion.

Under normal circumstances students are not eligible to receive unemployment payments. However, the pandemic unemployment payment was made available as an emergency response to the unprecedented number of people, including students, who lost their employment as a result of the pandemic.

On 22 June 2021 there were some 26,900 students in receipt of the payment which is a decrease of over 20,000 on the 47,000 who were supported by the pandemic unemployment payment in recent weeks. As restrictions are gradually lifted I expect to see many students closing their Pandemic Unemployment Payment claims to return to their jobs as they did last year after the restrictions were eased.

Claims for all full time students will close on 7^thSeptember with the start of the 2021/2022 academic year reflecting the fact that as colleges and universities re-open, students will no longer be available to take-up full-time work, irrespective of the sector that they had previously worked in.

The main financial support available to eligible students attending full-time further and higher education courses is the student universal support Ireland (SUSI) grant under the Department of Education and Skills.

I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.