If there is anyone who could make it happen I would be happy to do so. I will have my officials look at it again. I have been told that it could not happen and I have been up and down the road with this. Believe you me I would like to see some people I know who are working in Monaghan and living in Northern Ireland getting the payment too. The fact is that it could not be done, which is the information that I have, but I will certainly look at it again.

I will have to wait to see what the advice is on this.

I am not going to make any commitments because it would be wrong of me to make a promise that I could not fulfil.

I am saying to the Senator that I am going to look at it again.

I am sorry but I forgot to answer one of Senator Ruane's previous questions. The working family payment continues to be paid in conjunction with the Covid-19 provisions. A date and time had to be picked if a person was in employment on or after 13 March, whether employed or self-employed, and the Covid-19 payment was then made. I note the Senator's comments on getting people back to education. I do not know how that can be sorted. I will speak to my officials about it and I take the point she makes. People do not w…

The scope of the pandemic unemployment payment is clear as it is a working age payment, which covers people between 18 and 66.

I do not know if there is anything I can do for them. We can look at it.

The greatest number of requests I have had since becoming Minister relate to community employment schemes. There are always cases where people want to stay on community employment schemes and I understand the reasons. If everybody stayed on them, however, there would be no space for new people. The scheme is meant to allow people to get back to the workforce and into full employment. Having said that, I know some people are doing absolutely wonderful and valuable work through the scheme in communities right across …

I will certainly look at the rural social scheme. It does wonderful work in rural Ireland.

Any employee who has been employed by the same employer for two years is entitled to redundancy payment. This legislation will not impact their rights in any way. I want to be clear on that. Regarding people who hope to go back to jobs, on 10 August, the remaining sectors of the economy will hopefully be able to reopen. Of course, we are always guided by public health advice. I said earlier that the Department will take a very practical approach regarding those people who are expecting to go back to their particula…

Sorry, yes.

There is no commencement order in the Bill.

Yes, I have discretion. Is that okay?

Obviously, I am fairly new in this job and I will be guided by my officials. I take the Senator's point. For people who know that they are going to get their job back in two weeks or three weeks - that the pub is going to open or the hotel is going to scale up or whatever is going to happen - nobody will all of a sudden make them go and find another job in the meantime and they will not be taken off the payment. That is just being reasonable. We will take a practical approach here. Let us face it, this payment was …

It is not the intention to cause anybody distress.

As I stated, there is no commencement order in this Act, and we will certainly take on board the Senator's views.

It does not exist.

I was not out in the airport-----

-----and I have no intention of going there. We need to put this issue into perspective. Social welfare staff paid the pandemic unemployment payment to more than 600,000 people. They did it by way of a one-page online application. The normal checks did not apply. They did not have face-to-face meetings. They did not have those normal checks. The payment was introduced quickly, as the Senator knows. As we all said at the time, speed trumped perfection. The truth is that there was room for some to abuse it. Given the…

This regulation relates to the PUP. We are putting the PUP on the same footing as jobseeker's payments. That is the statutory instrument's purpose.