Up to €410 a week for staff hit by disruption

A €3.7bn wage and welfare package will see the State pay workers impacted by Covid-19 up to €410 per week while the unemployed will see payments increased.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the emergency wage measures are designed to keep people in jobs to avoid even worse economic difficulties in the future.

The wage subsidies and increased jobless payments will cost the State €3.7bn over a 12-week period.

Cabinet agreed the measures after other countries, including the UK and Denmark, also introduced such protections.

As part of the package, the Government will pay a temporary wage subsidy of 70% of take-home pay up to a maximum weekly tax-free amount of €410 to help companies to keep paying staff.

Employers must self-declare to Revenue that they have experienced “significant” negative economic disruption due to Covid-19, with a minimum of 25% decline in turnover. This scheme is open to impacted employers in all sectors.

The subsidy is equivalent to the after-tax income of a worker on around €38,000.

Workers earning between €38,000 and €76,000 will be entitled to assistance capped at €350, while workers earning above €76,000 will be excluded from the scheme.

Employers will be free to top-up the Government’s element of the salary.

Meanwhile, workers who have lost their jobs due to the crisis will receive a higher emergency Covid-19 unemployment payment of €350 per week, an increase from €203.

Self-employed workers will also be eligible for the €350 payment directly from the Department of Social Protection.

Announcing the welfare measures, Mr Donohoe said: “We must act now to avoid even greater economic difficulties in the future.”

He said that the driving need was to provide “income support” and give “confidence to employers to retain” workers.

The “care and protection of our citizens is our abiding concern”, the finance minster added.

Ministers confirmed the increased welfare payment would begin on Friday, while the wage subsidies will come into effect once emergency legislation is passed later this week and Revenue is in a position to coordinate the payments.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said her original estimate of 400,000 job losses was now potentially conservative.

Business Minister Heather Humphreys insisted that the hope from the wage subsidy scheme was that businesses could bounce back when the pandemic ends.

Employers group Ibec said the supports would play a crucial role in enabling the economy to revive.

Its chief executive, Danny McCoy, said: “These income supports are a crucial and important further step towards keeping vulnerable firms alive, keeping their employees engaged with them, and protecting the income of individuals.”

Opposition TDs said they were glad the Government had accepted the original €203 unemployment payment had been “ridiculously low”.