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MARY LOU MCDONALD warned that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) cut will cause economic hardship.
The Sinn Féin leader asked the government to reverse the reduction.
Weekly payments of € 350 have been reduced to between € 200 and € 300, which has affected the 150,000 people still receiving the benefit.
McDonald said Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will have to reverse the decision, saying it was a mistake to cut the payment, especially when Dublin and Donegal face tighter restrictions.
“I think you will have to change your mind because they made a mistake, because what they are doing is unfair, because what they are doing will undoubtedly cause not only difficulties, but what MABS (Money Budgeting and Advisory Service) has described as an upcoming tsunami of domestic debt ”, told RTÉ The Week in Politics.
“That is not a smart thing to do socially or economically, so Paschal will have to change his position because it is the wrong position.”
McDonald rejected Donohoe’s claim that the government cut Covid-19 unemployment payments so the pup could last longer for people.
“I think the real reason for extending and maintaining payments is the fact that we are still in the grip of a crisis,” he added.
“If we initially thought six months ago that it was a passing crisis, that we could endure it for six months and then we could go back and breathe bad air.”
Taoiseach Micheál Martin defended the decision last week saying that while rates have been lowered, the scheme had been extended until next April.
Hotels
Meanwhile, hotel bookings across Ireland have been found to have plummeted 67% in recent weeks, prompting a call from industry leaders for urgent action.
The latest survey by the Irish Hotel Federation (IHF) reveals a collapse in hotel bookings following the tightening of Covid-19 restrictions in Dublin.
The IHF said that after the government announced its six-month, medium-term plan to live with coronavirus, the weekly rate of new bookings dropped sharply.
IHF President Elaina Fitzgerald Kane said: “Now is the time to ‘make or break.’
“Urgent and unprecedented government intervention is required to support tourism businesses and safeguard thousands of jobs across the sector.
“This should form a central platform for the Budget to be announced next month.”
Before the outbreak of Covid-19, tourism supported 270,000 livelihoods, one in 10 of all Irish jobs.
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An estimated 100,000 of these jobs have been lost so far this year and another 100,000 are at immediate risk, the IFH warned.
The survey results are based on responses from 298 properties representing a combined stock of 32,100 rooms spread across the country.
Hotel room occupancy rates nationwide are 40% for September, 23% for October, and 12% for November, based on currently booked businesses.
This compares with rates of 89% last September, 81% last October and 82% last November.
Fitzgerald Kane said the stark figures highlight the requirement for additional sector-specific measures for tourism.
“This situation is nothing short of disastrous for our sector with serious implications for the tourism industry and the economy in general,” he added.
“We call on the government to implement sectoral measures as a matter of urgency.
“These should include better employment subsidies, a reduction in tourist VAT, an extended exemption from local authority fees and greater access to bank financing.”
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