Regina Doherty: 400,000 job losses due to coronavirus 'a conservative figure'
The Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Regina Doherty, said the predicted number of 400,000 job losses is a conservative figure.
She said: “This virus is presenting a once-in-a-century challenge to our society, it’s testing our cohesion, our resilience, and actually probably our ability to respond.
“Whilst naturally this is first and foremost a public health challenge, it’s also having and posing a very serious threat to the living standards and the livelihoods of the hundreds of thousands of Irish people.
“As the impact of the necessary public health measures are taking hold, many employers are facing very significant losses of revenue and with the consequential impact on employment.
“I think it’s almost impossible to predict the scale of the employment loss.
“I know I’m on record of one day last week predicting that maybe some 400,000 jobs may go, but I actually believe that this is a conservative figure, because the job losses of the scale expected will pose a threat of significant societal effects.
“I think that’s why since the crisis first began, we immediately introduced a system of emergency payments to get money into people’s hands, fast, until we had designed a more robust response.”
Ms Doherty added: “As well as the temporary wage scheme that was announced, we are announcing a substantial increase in the weekly rate of payments for the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment to €350 per week.
“So where an employer can’t retain a worker or avail of the supports of the temporary wage subsidy scheme, then that employee will be able to access the emergency Covid-19 unemployment payment, which is now at a substantially higher range than it was when we introduced it only last week.
“This level of payment has been chosen for maximum impact, particularly for the workers that have been laid off and the sectors that have been most seriously affected.
“So for example, the average take-home wage in the hospitality sector that has been so badly affected in the last week, is approximately €403 per week – that’s their take-home pay.
“A new Covid-19 payment of €350 is approximately 80% of the value of that normal take-home pay.”
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