Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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283. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will increase expenditure on the pandemic unemployment payment if further Covid-19 restrictions are required. [32281/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Pandemic Unemployment Payment, or PUP, was introduced as an emergency measure to support qualifying employees and the self-employed who lost employment due to Government mandated public health restrictions.

To date expenditure on the scheme is over €8 billion and just under 900,000 people have benefitted from the scheme. This demonstrates the Government's clear commitment to support workers and businesses who have been severely impacted by Covid-19.

As an exceptional measure it would be neither feasible nor equitable to continue the PUP payment as the labour market and economy re-open. As public health restrictions are relaxed thousands of jobs are resuming each week and the requirement for emergency measures is diminishing.

To allow as much time as possible for the economy to re-open and for employment to recover, the Government decided to taper the payment and withdraw it slowly over a prolonged period. Accordingly the rates of payment will remain unchanged until September when they will commence a gradual reduction over 6 months back to the standard jobseekers rate for a single adult of €203. While this is being implemented, the Department will be focusing on the provision of employment and training services.

As has been the case throughout the pandemic, the position with regard to the PUP will be kept under review if the public health position changes.

I trust this clarifies the position at this time.