Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has told the Dáil that she will sign a regulation that will allow people receiving Pandemic Unemployment Pyment and Jobseekers’ Allowance to travel to green list countries without having their payments halted.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has told the Dáil that she will sign a regulation that will allow people receiving Pandemic Unemployment Pyment and Jobseekers’ Allowance to travel to green list countries without having their payments halted.
The minister also said she has directed her department to review all cases to date where people who went on holiday had their payment stopped. 
Under legislation passed in the Dáil last night, anyone in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment must be “genuinely seeking” employment. 
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that more than 2,000 people in receipt of the payment have had their cases closed as a result of checks carried out at Dublin Airport. 
But he said the vast majority of these claims relate to people who have been leaving the country on a permanent basis. 
Mr Martin said a “handful of cases” were those of claimants who have had their payments suspended. 
Labour leader Alan Kelly said the sense of solidarity that brought the country through the Covid-19 pandemic went “out the window” last night over the “discriminatory” changes made to the Pandemic Unemployment Payment. 
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kelly described the situation as a mess and unfair to those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic, many of whom are waiting to see if their sector will reopen under the next phase of reopening the country. 
He said he would like to see a breakdown of figures claiming that the majority of people who lost the payment were leaving the country on a permanent basis. 
Mr Kelly said it would be better if people did not leave the country at all but it was unfair and Orwellian in nature to say that some people can leave the country, but if you are poor and receiving State payments, you cannot. 
Meanwhile, FLAC has said the new legislation on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment does not clear up the current controversy and information coming from the Department of Social Protection is “confusing. 
Managing Solicitor with the Free Legal Advice Centre Sinead Lucey said any legislation that is passed will only affect the PUP on a prospective basis, meaning that anything that has happened up until now has been carried out on an administrative basis. 
Speaking on the same programme, she said the terms of the payment was based on a loss of income and employment at a particular point in time and anyone who has travelled abroad up until now is “fully signed into law” and a decision to stop their payment would be challengeable. 
She said each case in which payment was stopped must be considered individually and expressed concern at the number of cases involved.
Ms Lucey said FLAC has been receiving calls on the issue and one of the problems is that the information coming from the Department of Social Services is extremely confusing. 
 She said there are all sorts of situations why people travel, including family circumstances. 
She said the terms and conditions under which people receive the payment must be made clear to them so they can inform the department if they are no longer fulfilling those terms and conditions. 
She said there is nothing on the form to say that a temporary trip abroad could result in loss of the payment for up to four weeks. 
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed said the new rule over travelling abroad is an unfair measure that should not have been introduced.
Spokesperson Brid O’Brien said it now also affects those claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance and there has been a lack of information and little engagement with the department on the issue.