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LAST UPDATE | 28 May 2020
FINANCE MINISTER PASCHAL Donohoe has told the Dáil he does not think people in receipt of the €350 pandemic payment are “living it up”.
Donohoe’s comment was in reference to a remark made by the CEO of Supermac’s who likened the government’s Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) to “winning the lotto” for many part-time workers.
Donohoe said: “There is no suggestion from me or anyone in the Government that anybody who is on the pandemic payment is in any way living it up.
“Believe me, I understand the contribution that people on low income make to this society for the work that they do.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sarah McInerney this morning, Pat McDonagh – who co-owns the Galway-based outfit – said there is no incentive for workers earning more money on PUP to come back to work, and that the payment needs to be reviewed to “give some people more and other people less”.
McDonagh insisted he has never called for the abolition of the Covid-19 unemployment benefit but said some anomalies have developed over time which need to be addressed.
“Where we have a mother and son working for us. He’s a student, he worked eight hours a week, he got somewhere between €80 and €100 a week. She was full time, and she has to look after elderly parents, and rightly so. And both qualify for the €350 Covid payment.
“Now I felt, and I do feel that the mother will be entitled to get a bit more than the son who was, as I say, only worked one shift a week, but he equally gets €350. Now, there’s no incentive for him to come back to work because he’s on a winner, he’s won the lotto.
“Why would he bother coming into work when he can sit at home and get €350 into his account every week,” McDonagh said.
I think she should be entitled to get probably €450 or €500. And on the other hand, I think the young lad should get no more than what he was making when he was a part-time employee, and that will incentivise him to come back to work.
Speaking on the same programme, Labour TD Ged Nash said he could assure McDonagh that “no one is living high on the hog on PUP”.
“It’s really offensive and insulting, the kind of language Pat uses, that he’s used referring to the young man that he’s decided to isolate in his comment there as having somehow won the lotto because he happens to be having an income of €350 a week having lost his job through no fault of his own, or in fairness no fault of the business that employed him.”
Nash said there are some people who are on the payment who are taking home a little bit more than they did when they were working, but that real scandal is low pay.
“Most people I’ve met who lost their jobs through no fault of their own want to get back to work because there’s a dignity about work, but they want to go back to work that ensures that they earn a weekly pay package that allows them to make ends meet.”
McDonagh told McInneary that the business can’t afford to pay employees higher wages to incentivise them back to work because of the way the company has been hit financially by the pandemic. He said the company would be lucky break even this year.
The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has received over 815,000 applications for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment since it was introduced in March.
The latest figures show that some 579,400 people are in receipt of the payment, but 33,400 of them have recently returned to work and will not receive the payment from next week.
McDonagh said he wants to see the PUP reviewed as well as the wage subsidy scheme for employers as there are no subsidies for women returning from maternity leave or for new employees.
In the Dáil today, Donohoe vowed to act to ensure mothers returning from maternity leave “are treated fairly” under the wage subsidy scheme
The Covid-19 Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme pays up to €410 per week to an employee of a business that has lost more than 25% of its turnover, on the condition that employers keep those workers on their books.
However, due to an anomaly, women who are returning from unpaid maternity leave and were not on their company’s payroll in January and February are unable to access the subsidy.
Donohoe said he will bring a proposal to Cabinet on Friday to resolve this anomaly.
‘Gaming the system’
The Dail is sitting today to approve €5.5 billion euro in additional funding for the Department of Social Protection to continue to fund social welfare payments.
More than six billion euro has been spent on social protection support and unemployment payments for workers who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said the new payment system is not perfect and was introduced at “breakneck speed”, but rejected claims that people are “gaming” the system.
“Can I just disassociate myself and anybody else who has wrongly intimated that people are gaming the system.
“Yes, there is fraud, and there is fraud in every system and every other country. We are catching those people but they are in very small numbers. There is nobody gaming the system.
“There are some people getting more from it than they would have been earning in income and there are anomalies with part-time workers.”
Fianna Fail’s Willie O’Dea said TDs are being asked to vote on billions of euro in extra funding without information on how long Covid-19 payments will continue for.
“We’re being asked today to vote in the house on a sum of six thousand, eight hundred and 40 million euro increased money for social welfare payments, which I welcome, of course, but without any information as to the future of this particular payment.”
O’Dea said while it is welcome the Covid-19 unemployment payments will be extended beyond June, people need certainty on the payment.
“We are still without an announcement on when this will be paid until. It seems to me that the Government were happy to take the plaudits to increase the social welfare payment to 350 euro per week but they want to shirk the responsibility regarding how long this will continue.”
Doherty said she will bring forward proposals for some changes to the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment next week.
In a report published this morning, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ERSI) advised against cutting the pandemic payment, warning that austerity measures could worsen the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic if undertaken too soon.
Around 8% of employees are on the minimum wage in Ireland. Compared to all employees, minimum wage employees are more likely to be women, work part-time and be in the 15-24 years age bracket.
According to the ERSI’s Quarterly Economic Commentary, nearly 27,000 18-19-year-olds are claiming the PUP, close to 60% of the total number of workers in that age bracket who had a job last year.
Over 93,000, or around 47%, of those formerly-employed workers aged between 19 and 22 are in the same situation.
The border region has been the worst-hit with nearly 30% of the labour force claiming the payment, followed by South-East with 28% and the Mid-West with almost 27%.
- Additional reporting from PA
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Jokes aside he must know something about Boris that Boris is terrified for us to know
@Daniel Bohan: Everything you need to know is right here: https://youtu.be/GNaWPV5l4j4
The man has his finger on the button and that’s why he is in his job.
@milton friedman: He’s certainly tapped into a huge portion of the population in the UK, in tune with how they think and feel. It makes his judgement of the aftermath of this all the more bizzare. Whatever about the actual trip, his non apology afterwards was a spectacular own goal and it’s clearly not gone down well with the general public, including many people that he was in tune with.
@Cian Nolan: It’ll be quickly forgotten.
@Sylvia O’Regan: If he’d apologised I think he’d have gotten away with it but I think too many Conservative MP’s and voters are angry for this to just to blow over. Big opportunity for Starmer at the next PMQ’s.
@Daniel Bohan: lots are saying he does have something on him.
@Marcus Suridius: less of having something on him, more like Johnson knows he is absolutely clueless without him, and would be easily played out of power.
@Brynþór Patrekursson: He used to work for murdocks pet, farrage, of course he has dirt on bojo. Totally agree on clueless.
@Daniel Bohan: bonga bonga parties with trump wee gate
@milton friedman: woke up early today and watched the full video….WOW!
@Denis Reidy: Really? Tell us when he worked for ‘murdocks’ pet ‘farrage’? Do some research for God’s sake instead.
He must have some seriously compromising information on Boris. probably him and trump in a Russian hotel getting weed on
@Daniel Bohan: wowzers. Thanks for that mental image!
@Daniel Bohan: That would account for their pi55 coloured hair.
@Alan Biddulph: nah the last PM screwed a dead pigs head. This would be nothing.
@Daniel Bohan: no Kompromat in this story! Cummings masterminded Brexit by sloganeering and in your face campaigning around the clock… maniacal stuff really. He not only knows which way the wind blows, he knows what is made of!!!!
@Peter McGlynn: Theresa May did no such thing!
Boris putting ambition before the people that are under his care. Clearly Dominic Cummings, a mere advisor, is more important than any/every party colleague and the public.
I watched him briefly *trying* to answer questions relevant to the plans going forward with the pandemic – blustering, totally out of his depth.
I can’t imagine many having confidence in him.
@Skybloo: it’s not surprising, Boris couldn’t give a fiddler’s about anyone bar himself.
Whether he was right or wrong it’s nothing other than a media witchhunt, they thrive on drama and bad news and move on to the next misfortunate after the previous one has been dispatched.
@Charles Coughlan:
Yes, the media in UK do like a witch hunt.
But I think this is rightly upsetting people. Many did not hold the hands of their loved ones as they died because of the guidelines. People died alone. Many didn’t attend funerals of loved ones. Many children and adults didn’t receive medical treatment for chronic diseases and illness including some cancer treatments due to the guidelines. Many suffered with COVID 19 while trying to care for young children. And then an chief advisor who is instructing people what they must do, implies by his excuses and BS that they were stupid to do so. That they made the wrong interpretation of the regulations. People don’t want to live with regret or feeling like they got things wrong to the detriment of themselves or loved ones.
@Charles Coughlan:
It isn’t though is it, very simple to understand the issue but obviously is too difficult for you.
Trump like nonsense of media bias is of course silly and ridiculous.
@Skybloo: very well expressed .. it’s the actions not the words that are important and Cummins failed
37,000 people dead and 22 billion cost to UK Exchequer. Not to mention, the country is about to embark on a new economic and political life.
The media as usual are focusing on the wrong thing.
Many Labour MPs have broken the guidelines. They simply just don’t like Cummings.
@milton friedman: They don’t like unelected bureaucrats in the UK. Cummings is the epitome of that – the tail that wags the dog. Combine that with his unbelievable levels of arrogance and it’s not hard to see why he is so hated across the UK and his position is untenable.
Plenty of other figures in the UK have breached rules, true. But they’ve all apologised and many have resigned/been sacked.
This will go on until it dies down or there is a material threat to Boris’ leadership of the Tory party.
@milton friedman: Yup, when Neil Kinnocks son travelled to visit him on his birthday the Guardian went with the line that the police were more or less harassing him over something so small. But when it’s anything to do with Johnson or the Tories they flip their lids. Lost all respect for that rag when they allowed an opinion piece on Johnson which insinuated that his illness was a ‘set up’ to get public sympathy. Also with Johnson, they were up to their necks with that story about Johnson’s row with his partner, the one where the neighbours was so scared and worried for Ms Simmons safety that in their panic they accidentally rang the Guardian first instead of the police. Funnily enough, they dropped the story with no apology to Johnson when it transpired that the neighbours were pro-remain activists and one had bragged on twitter 2 days before the ‘row’ that she had bravely given Johnson the finger as he passed her near their homes. This whole Cummings thing is nothing but simmering Brexit bitterness coming to the surface again. Childish, bitter buIIshit.
@Tommy Roche: one must the apparant rantings of the press from the facts. ..the facts speak for themselves…the PM allows and even encourages his advisor to make his own rules for his own conduct….simply FACT
@Tommy Roche:
I’d usually say that your childish, bitter rant would be better placed on the Daily Mail rag, but even they agree on how damaging Cumming’s actions are.
In fact, many staunch Brexiteer MPs are looking for Cummings to resign – one Brexit MP resigned over this. So your arguement re simmering Brexit bitterness doesn’t wash.
Also, with regard you and your other paid troll friend above stating how Labour MPs didn’t abide by regulations therefore what is the fuss about Cummings? – do you not see how this lacks any intelligence?? It should go without explaining – it doesn’t matter whether you are Labour, Tory, Lib Dems, SNP, Brexiteer, Remainer – the person should be held to account, especially if you have been awarded the honour and privilege of guiding the public.
@milton friedman: You really have an agenda, don’t you Milton? Every single Cummings article…really?
@milton friedman:
Labour MPs aren’t making rules for the public to follow, Johnson and Cummings are. Except they think they don’t have to follow the rules they are setting.
Simple to understand really, surprised you don’t seem to understand it.
@milton friedman: name the Labour MPs.
@Tommy Roche: Add the pathetic Robert Peston and the insufferable Beth Rigby to The Guardian and Mirror too.
@Tommy Roche: nail on head. Compare the demonising of Cummings who the Remainer elites despise with the media scrutiny given to Stephen Kinnock, Ian Blackford, Tahir Ali, Vaughan Gething etc.
@Skybloo: someone who doesn’t share your views is a ‘paid troll’ ? And what’s with the tiresome generic bland ‘Daily Mail’ comment? Have you researched that particular organ’s recent editorial shift on Brexit? Were you aware of its Sunday counterpart’s pro Remain stance? The fundamental question here is whether a BBC correspondent is entitled to air personal viewpoints or whether the organisation is politically impartial.
@Valthebear: Talk about missing the point of my comment. You need to lighten up on the juice there mate lol
Richard Nixon said once it’s not the act that gets you… it’s the cover up that will get you, Albert Reynolds once said … it’s the small things that will get you…. me thinks Boris will find out same
Hilarious to think that the BBC actually believe they have a respectable level of impartiality, any debates are not about finding solutions and agreement, they are merely designed to produce as much drama as possible under a majority left wing panel.
@Alan Currie: You must be having a laugh. BBC with majority left leaning panels? Not for Brexit. In fact anti-remain groups received a disproportionate amount of air time on current affairs programmes like Question Time.
@John R: how so?
Did he or his wife have the virus probably not
@Tony Mcgrath: how is that relevant? He clearly broke the rules.
@Connoroconner: which rule did he specifically break given that the health and safety of his child was at risk and latitude was allowed for the wellbeing of his child? His mistake was to visit another town on the pretext that he was testing his eyesight on the advice of his wife.
@Micheal S. O’ Ceilleachair: He didn’t break the rules, he broken the law. How was driving 260 miles in a car witb his child when he was possibly illfor the well being of his child? In his position, he would be able to employ the services of the Govt to have his child taken care of. He did not have latitude to undertake that long distance drive. And you don’t drive 30 miles on your wifes birthday (& bring your child) to test your eyes tosee if you are fit to drive.
Stop falling for their spin. If Joe Soap had given that reason, they would have been turned back and received a fine. One if the Scientists had to resign when he travelled for some nookie (arguably just as essential for his wellbeing).
If he had just taken his medicine and walked, he could be back in in a couple months.
The blokes not even an MP. 4 labour MP’s broke the lockdown. Funny no mention of that on liberal news sites.
@Crispy Brown: Out of curiosity, how many of the 4 Labour MPs you mentioned are direct advisers to the British PM?
@Crispy Brown:
That’s a childish argument. It doesn’t make the situation any better whether Labour, Tory, Lib Dems etc … each one must be held to account. People died alone because of the regulations, didn’t receive treatment for other illnesses because of restrictions and regulations. Now they are being told that they, and other professionals, could have made all sorts of interpretations and changed the outcomes of their experiences. Cummings is the person drafting the instructions for the public in the UK during this pandemic, claiming to be in touch with the public. Instead, he has never been more out of touch.
I wonder if there will be less compliance by the public now.
@Crispy Brown:
Laughable the excuses people come up with for Cummings!!
@Metassus: that is a piss poor argument
@Crispy Brown: wordbrain?
Funny, I don’t remember Kaura Kuenssberg being replaced for breaking impartiality rules in the run up to the British general election. Must be a different set of rules for the Tories.
@Johnny 5: Absolutely. I’ve never seen a more biased reporter.
She stated facts. How is that a breach of impartiality?
@Connoroconner: the BBC only considers it impartial when the government is called out.
It’s not what Dom knows about Boris that’s keeping him in his job. It’s what Boris knows about himself.
@Brian Farrell: Great comment!
What dirt does he have on the those in charge?
Is he anything to Summer Cummings
@Colm: NO
Glaxosmithkline have a factory. Pretty big coincidence
If only he put half as much effort in protecting nhs staff.
She is a TV news presenter not a columnist or opinion writer. It’s her job to report the news in an impartial manner and not to express her own point of view. What if Sharon Ni Bheolain opened Mondays Six-One News with the comment, “I think Leo is a right bloody hypocrite for going to the park for that picnic and not practicing proper social distancing”. That would be something akin to what Maitlis did. The fact that so many agree with her point of view is completely irrelevant.
If Dominic Cummings is a civil servant and not a politician, can it not be argued that political impartiality does not come into thw equation
@Niall O’Sullivan: he’s a political strategist and political advisor so definitely not impartial.
There you go tell the truth and the B. B. C. don’t like it, so you get punished.
One set of rules for the haves and another one for the have nots….the fact that the BBC journalist reported this is a clear indication as to how the general public feel about their government… useless bunch of toffee pudding nosed incompetents.
@Richard Reynolds: Excellent article. Carole Cadwalladr is that rarest of breeds these days, an impeccable investigative journalist.
@Richard Reynolds: I literally had chills going down my spine reading that article
BBC ought to be ashamed. BBC can now be compared to FOX News, cowering before Boris like FOX cowers before Trumpton… An utter DISGRACE.
@Daniel Bohan. I must admit for about 2 or 3 seconds I thought you meant Bojo and Trump getting stoned but then I realized you meant getting hosed.
Well comrade Dom despite his Rasputin like role and being witch doctor of mass data propaganda….didn’t really convince anyone with his schoolboy smirky face.Thats the main problem..hes an incompetent Svengali..He seems to pedal theories that Russia and China attempt/attempted to use..the primary use of science in government,data manipulation,mathematicians,economic theorists..look at those countries to see how well that ll work out.He is dripping with Russian business connections..surprised he’s anywhere near government.
Censorship
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