IRELAND
Irish Public Servants from a number of Agencies have been reassigned to the Department of Social Protection to help process a surge in emergency unemployment claims from people signing on due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Employers in the public house, childcare and other sectors are being asked to continue paying staff up to €203 ($A368) a week as the Department scrambles to cope with tens of thousands of new claims.
Minister for Social Protection, Regina Doherty said employers would be reimbursed by the Government “within a number of weeks”.
Up to 50,000 bar workers and 25,000 childcare workers, as well as thousands in the restaurant, catering, beauty and retail sectors are among those to have been effectively laid off in the past few days due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
“We have asked employers, where they can, to keep people on their books and pay them the minimum of the €203 per week which is the equivalent of a job seekers’ rate,” Ms Doherty said.
“If employers are continuing to keep staff on their books it ensures continuity of an income for employees and also ensures relationship continuity between the employee and employer so when things do eventually pick up they will be able to pick up where they left off.”
For others, a new emergency payment, the Covid Pandemic Unemployment Payment, will be available to anyone who has lost their job due to the outbreak.
The emergency payment will last for six weeks and does not provide additional allowances for dependent children or adults.
During the six weeks recipients should apply for the most suitable long-term payment.
Ms Doherty said her Department had seen 20,000 new people present for jobseekers’ payments on one day.
She said it was difficult to forecast how many would apply for the emergency payment.
Dublin, 17 March 2020
