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More than 19,000 more people applied for Pandemic Unemployment Pay (PUP) last week, it has been revealed.
The Department of Social Protection also revealed that the numbers demanding a payment this week have risen substantially.
In figures released Monday night, a spokesperson said the Department paid € 61.9 million in Covid support to 217,142 people this week.
This represents an increase of 10,801 over the 206,341 people paid last week.
A total of 8,690 people closed their PUP claims last week, and 6,309 of them indicated they were returning to work.
The Department said the increase in the number of PUP payment requests could be partly attributed to the Level 3 lockdown in Dublin.
A spokesperson said: “The biggest increase is in Dublin, with the number of PUP payments rising to 85,892, 10,000 more than last week.
“More increases are expected where a region has moved to level 3 or higher.”
The effects of the Donegal blockade have yet to be seen, as it only came into effect last Friday.
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The Department said any impact from the Donegal closure is likely to be reflected in next week’s figures.
The sector with the highest number of people receiving a PUP payment this week is the Accommodation and Food Service activities, almost 7,000 more than last week.
Meanwhile, Education and Public Administration and Defense are the only sectors with a slight drop in PUP payments this week.
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