Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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33. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the practice of reviewing pandemic unemployment payments for the self-employed exclusively against their 2018 tax returns will be reviewed to allow for more up to date evidence of earnings for 2019 and 2020 to be taken into account. [19011/20]

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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62. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to base the rate of payment of the pandemic unemployment payment on 2019 earnings rather than 2018 earnings; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19039/20]

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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71. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department is taking into consideration total taxable incomes for 2018 when reviewing the pandemic unemployment rate for persons or only PAYE income. [18926/20]

Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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219. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if supports will be instituted for self-employed persons whose incomes have been vastly depleted due to Covid-19 but are not eligible for the pandemic unemployment payment in view of the fact they are continuing to earn a reduced income; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19275/20]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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224. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason for the year 2018 being selected as the basis for calculation for the pandemic payment rate despite PAYE employees rates calculated over two timeframes and the higher value being taken into consideration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19456/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 33, 62, 71, 219 and 224 together.

From the outset, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has been made available to both employees and the self-employed.

For employees, their gross weekly earnings determine the rate of pandemic unemployment payment.  The approach used is that both an employee’s average gross weekly earnings in 2019 and in January and February 2020 as received from Revenue are examined.  The higher of the two amounts is then used.

For self-employed people a different approach is required, which based on their gross average weekly income for 2018.  The year 2018 is used because it is the last tax year for which verifiable data on self-employed income is available.

Combining employee and self-employed income could potentially reduce average weekly earnings in the case of employee earnings, particularly where an employee has relatively small amounts of self-employment income, as the respective earnings would then be assessed over a full year.  The nature of self-employment is such that it is not possible, for Revenue and PRSI purposes, to attribute self-employment income to any particular week, and earnings are assessed on a full-year basis.

Any person who feels that the assessment of their earnings, based on returns already submitted to Revenue, is inaccurate can ask for a review of their case with further details available on www.gov.ie.

The July stimulus announced last week extended the Pandemic Unemployment Payment to April 2021 on the basis of restructured payment rates.  This will cost some €2.2bn, or €380m in excess of the cost of jobseeker payments.

From 17 September 2020 people who previously earned over €300 per week  will receive €300 per week, people who earned €200 to €300 will receive €250 and people who earned less than €200 will receive €203.  From 1 February 2021 people who earned over €300 per week will receive €250 and people who earned less than €300 per week will receive €203. From 1st April 2021 people in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment will need to apply for a jobseeker payment.

Those who are not eligible for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment may apply for Jobseeker's Benefit for the self-employed or the means-tested Jobseeker's Allowance.

I have also announced a €112 million expansion in employment services and supports under which 45,500 new places are being made available on schemes and services.  This includes a number of supports for those looking to move from Pandemic Unemployment Payment to take up self-employment.

Some €12m is being made available to support self-employed sole traders and micro-enterprises with a grant of €1,000.  This will help with the costs of restarting their enterprise when exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

Furthermore, I am also opening up the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance Scheme and the Back to Education Allowance scheme to those exiting the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.

I trust that this clarifies the matter.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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34. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated number of workers that are ineligible for the pandemic unemployment payment and the wage subsidy payments but that have had at least 156 weeks of PRSI contributions since they first started working. [19021/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The pandemic unemployment payment was designed to support workers who lost their employment due to the COVID 19 pandemic.  In order to do this, the qualifying conditions were kept as simple as possible with no requirement that applicant had to have any specific number of contributions paid.  The payment was introduced on 16 March with the requirement that the applicant had been in employment or self-employment immediately prior to 13 March 2020 and have lost their employment as a result of the restrictions placed due to the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic.

In referring to the figure of 156 contributions the Deputy may be associating this payment with the conditions attaching to the jobseekers benefit schemes as they apply to self-employed contributors.  However, as already stated, no such conditionality attaches to the pandemic unemployment payment.