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LAST UPDATE | 1 Jun 2021
THE PANDEMIC UNEMPLOYMENT Payment (PUP) will be phased out as part of a €3.5 billion Covid-19 stimulus plan unveiled by the Government today.
The Government has announced a range of measures to help businesses reopen as restrictions ease, but confirmed the PUP will be phased out in the coming months.
Speaking at a press conference today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said: “The economic impact of the pandemic was swift and unprecedented. It is the most rapid and dramatic recession recorded outside of the world wars.
“In response, a wide range of measures were put in place to try to limit damage and protect livelihoods and businesses as much as possible. They have provided both a safety net and a bridge to this point.
“And now, we must move forward with purpose, not to simply return to the pre-pandemic situation but to move our society and our economy on, to move towards not only generating the jobs we need, but also to address urgent societal issues.”
Martin said the plan includes more than €3.5 billion for the labour market and in enterprise supports, and just under €1 billion in additional funding for the “recovery resilience plan” which will help “kickstart” the economy and get more people back to work.
The PUP will be extended beyond 30 June for existing claimants “in recognition that opportunities to return to work will remain impacted, in some sectors, by public health restrictions in the short term”, the Government’s plan notes.
However, it was confirmed that “given current progress in delivering vaccines and re-opening the economy, it is planned to close the scheme to new applicants from 1 July”.
The current weekly rates of support will be gradually reduced over three phases by €50 increments.
The payment will be reduced to €300 from 7 September “provided progress on re-opening continues”. Two further phases of changes will take place over the following months – the payment will reduce to €250 on 16 November and be abolished on 8 February.
PUP claims for students will be extended until the start of the 2021/2022 college year (with the final payment on 7 September). Some €10 million in assistance will “provide supports for the forthcoming academic year for students impacted by Covid-19″, the plan states.
The Taoiseach told reporters that the tourism sector didn’t put pressure on him to lower the PUP amount in order to get young people to go back to work in that sector. He said people want to go back to work.
Business supports
The Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) is to be extended from 30 June until 31 December.
The current payment rates will be maintained in July, August, and September. The Government is also broadening eligibility, Martin said at a press conference at Dublin Castle.
The scheme, which is currently supporting around 300,000 jobs, will be available to any business whose turnover is down 30% or more compared with 2019.
Commercial rates will be waived for a further three months and the 9% reduced VAT rate for hospitality is to be extended until September 2022.
The weekly CRSS payment will continue, which is paid to businesses that are severely hampered in how they can operate due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But as the tourism and hospitality sectors open back up this month, the Government is expecting less and less businesses will qualify. So the Government is giving businesses that are coming off the CRSS a ”bullet payment on reopening”, as Tánaiste Leo Varadkar called it.
It will come in the form of a double payment for three weeks, up to a maximum of €30,000. ”That’s going to be very helpful in terms of cash flow, restocking, and re-engaging with employees,” he said.
A new scheme will start in September this year for businesses that are still struggling to resume operations in the autumn, where their turnover is 75% lower than it was in 2019.
These businesses will receive a further grant in the autumn up to a maximum of €15,000.
A special scheme for the event sector will be worth up to €50,000 per company.
Varadkar also said that he is extending the redundancy moratorium, for the last time, until 30 September by extending Section 21A of the Redundancy Act.
Businesses who struggle to pay redundancies will be able to gain access to a no-interest loan, the Tánaiste said.
The Government is also considering a range of recommendations in relation to arts and culture, and will pilot a basic income guarantee scheme for artists.
The aim is to have 2.5 million people working in Ireland by 2024. Varadkar said the plan will prompt our economy “to take off like a rocket in the months ahead”.
Property Tax
The Cabinet has also agreed that owners of homes built since 2013 will no longer be exempt from paying Local Property Tax.
Another change will see about one-third of people who already pay property tax having their bill increased by around €100 every year.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe told RTÉ’s News at One that there will be a new valuation of homes from November for property tax purposes. He said most homeowners won’t face an increase and the majority of those who do will face a hike of around €90 per year.
Speaking at the same press conference, Transport Minister Eamon Ryan announced plans to invest in rail transport in Cork in order to link Mallow to Midleton through a new platform at Kent Station.
The measures announced today will be paid for via national and European funding.
The European Council, made up of the Heads of State and Government of each EU Member State, recently adopted a historic €750 billion recovery package for Europe, NextGenerationEU.
Ireland will receive approximately €915 million in grants from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. These grants will be used to support investments between now and mid-2026.
A further set of grants will be allocated to each Member State in 2023, taking into account economic developments between now and then.
Further education and training
Further education and training will play an important role in getting more people back to work, the Government said today.
The plan states: “This priority area will focus on new work placements in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to keep those who are unemployed close to the labour market.
“This area will also focus on equipping the Irish workforce with the necessary future skills that will be required to boost the innovation and productivity of the SME sector, and the provision of skills in support of climate action.”
Three investments will be undertaken under this priority to a total value of €181 million:
With reporting by Gráinne Ní Aodha
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Merry Christmas everyone!… Especially to my family and friends here in Galway and to my family and friends across the water. I know everyone won’t agree with me, but I think it’s better than a no deal. Not everyone will be happy with the results but it’s a step forward! xxx
@Ann Neylan: I’ve got some fresh salmon topped with breadcrumbs baking in the oven. Haven’t a clue which water is was caught in… Really looking forward to it.
@Ann Neylan: farmed
@Craig Clancy: Well sure i knew that from the price I paid! xxx
@Ann Neylan: that chap kept it in a file, in a filing cabinet
@Ger: Wild Salmon is rightly protected, and can only be fished with either a permit or at a certain time of year, man is hitting you with facts and that’s all you’ve got.
@Ann Neylan: do yourself a favour and dump it.
Salmon get their pink colour from their natural diet in the wild. The farmed muck you are eating have been dyed artificially. But sure, breadcrumbs taste nice.
@Craig Clancy: Farmed and of course fed on world wide, millions of tonnes of sieved and scraped juvenile fish species, totally wrecking the littoral environment, so we then have a barrage of complaint that there are not enough traditional adult species to be caught. Same game as the chicken being fed on the soya, raped out of some previous rain forest. Wake up everyone. The feed for the fish and fowl needs to be the larvae of the Black Soldier Fly, themselves fed on our, in Ireland alone, one million tonnes of food waste a year. Hard to bring this forward though when this marine raping is allowed to continue.
@Ann Neylan: Your fish came from a farm! Salmon is mostly farmed. I suggest you do not eat it. Salmon farming is a very polluting activity, produces huge amounts of live that infect wild fish. Farmed salmon are fed with fishmeal that deprived wild fish of their food. The huge concentration of fish in the pens leads to outbreaks of disease that have to be treated with high doses of pharmaceuticals. The colour of the flesh is achieved by adding carotene to the feed. The workers are poorly paid and the profits go to Norwegian and Dutch companies.
Smoked salmon made from wild Alaskan salmon is OK. The Alaskan fishery is one of the most regulated in the world in order to conserve stocks.
Bon appetit!
@Gordon Davies: I only buy wild. Even if it’s ‘organic’ it’s still farmed and not nearly as healthy. Wild is higher in omega 3′s. Same with grass fed meat vs. grain fed. I get smoked wild salmon in Dunnes. Its more expensive, 8 euro a packet or 2 for 10 euro sometimes. But I’d rather eat quality twice a week than muck every day :)
There is question not about the article but about brexit
After brexit, who guards the Irish airspace? NATO? Or still RAF? Or French? Does irish Gov have a plan for it?
@There is no hope for humanity!: yes, the Dept of Defence is purchasing 12 drones from Harvey Norman when the January sales are allowed to start.
@James Gannon: great!!! Thanks m8 merry Xmas to you
This info is my best Xmas presents so far!
@There is no hope for humanity!: bring on the white swans… and we stop playing blackjack!
“In 2016 it was reported in the Irish press that several years previous confidential agreements were made between the Irish and British governments concerning the protection of Irish airspace from terrorist threats. The reports revealed that the Irish Department of Defence, Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish Aviation Authority entered into a bilateral agreement with the British RAF, Civil Aviation Authority, Ministry for Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth Office permitting the British military to conduct armed operations inside Irish sovereign or Irish-controlled airspace in the event of a real time or envisaged threat of an aerial terrorist-related attack on Ireland or on a neighbouring country”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland%E2%80%93NATO_relations
@James Gannon: Soooo… the expenditure ratio between defence and public housing will then be about the same as the US. Cool.
@Niall Ó Cofaigh: thank you sir, we all know Ireland is small and neutral, but better not leave the national security or reply on someone else. Specially with Britain, the less the better.
There is no true friend in the world, only “friend with benefits” :)
@Fachtna Roe: You meant spending extra on the drones? If so I think that is just temporary expense and it benefits for next 10-20 years. Both of them are important
If Ireland not in NATO, think about how much they have to spend on
@There is no hope for humanity!: the British will continue to. Its nothing to do with the EU, its in their own interest to protect against an aerial threat from the west
@Ger: oh… NO, you just ruined my Xmas present, couldn’t just wait for bit after Xmas telling me? I choose not believe it, will find it out after new year
@There is no hope for humanity!: We also have an “Airfix” barracks with lots of action men and GI Joe figures..
A friend was just sayin’…
Just thought I’d mention…
We should Leave the Eu as well no point being in it
@gk ricko: It’s working out well for the Brits…
@gk ricko: the next time you drive on one of our motorways across the country in a couple of hours remember that they were paid for by the EU. I remember it taking half a day to get anywhere. There are 1000s of jobs in economic black spots along the border that wouldn’t exist if not for EU money. That’s just two examples, there are many more. Ireland is a prime example of what is good about the EU.
@gk ricko: Ireland became a 1st world country for the first time ever largely due to to the EU
@gk ricko:
Keep taking the tablets!!
@gk ricko: those that want to leave the EU simply don’t understand it and it’s massive benefits. They are also clueless to how Ireland was prior to the EU.
The UK proved with brexit how little they understood the EU, just watch how much they bitch and moan when it comes to their summer holidays in the EU.
@Barry Somers: So long as their holiday is not longer than 90 days it stays the same as now and its the same for EU citizens coming to the UK.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2531
@Spongetron: give up your country to Europe for some tarrred roads. BRILLIANT
@gk ricko: your obviously too young to remember what the country was like before we joined the EEC (EU), I’m not…it’s was a hole.
@Joe Bloggs: are you a Beano?
Just wondering like…
@gk ricko: I would be grateful if you could back up your argument with a few facts
As ever our fishermen get a raw deal.This has gone on for years, no respect and continuous incursions by foreign trawlers
What’s the story with importing cars?
@eoin carroll: probably 20% more..
@eoin carroll:
A Free Trade Agreement: a new economic and social partnership with the United Kingdom
The agreement covers not just trade in goods and services, but also a broad range of other areas in the EU’s interest, such as investment, competition, State aid, tax transparency, air and road transport, energy and sustainability, fisheries, data protection, and social security coordination.
It provides for zero tariffs and zero quotas on all goods that comply with the appropriate rules of origin.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page there are links that go into more details and FAQs link.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2531
There will be less of a few things for us here after January 1st even SKY have deleted 50 channels from their service because the broadcasters of those channels couldn’t be bothered to apply for an EU licence, try looking for your favourite musics stations for starters :-(
@Joe Thorpe: sky?? so last year…get one of them dodgy boxes
@Joe Thorpe: I can live with 50 less channels…
@Joe Thorpe: oh god no, ring Boris and tell him he can have whatever he wants, seriously think we can live without magic or UK al jazeera
@rolyat ecnal: go up north and get a Freesat box. No bills to sky and all chanels (including itv and channel 5) free
@Joe Thorpe: I tried looking for them, found them and manually tuned them all in
@Joe Thorpe: mainly rubbish channels I’m sure you can find substitute ones
@Joe Thorpe: There’s 50 less channels and nothing on.
There was ALWAYS going to be a cut in quotas no matter what happened with Brexit. If it was a no-deal it would have been a complete leg-amputation of the fishing industry; this deal means it’s a leg-break that will heal and adapt in time.
Change your flag or sell off your quota, it’s been done before
Problem is in the UK it’s only 0.01% of their GDP but the political optician are 25%
Every Christmas it’s been a last minute hoo ha
No change there then
Not bad cod do better, Its like a slap of a wet fish across the face really or a bit of a red herring really. Its was all a cod all along and someone will walk the plankton for this!
@John Keane: Packing in the puns there like sardines…
@The Alchemist’s Head: Thank you, I really want to work for a tabloid but Im afraid it might be a leap too far!
Get somebody married into Ulster and start running a boat from Port Rush or Cushendall.
Find out who owns the pelagic quota (cartell), trace their political links,
@Chief Buck Cat: Give us lead link please. Just like the fact that the big pushers behind the wind power are the fossil fuel corporates, eager to have us over the metaphorical oil barrel for filling in the big gaps. Only problem is we end up with our electricity being the most expensive in Europe.
Just register 25% of the Irish fleet in Portavogie.
have your say