A Tipperary Oireachtas member has defended the decision to stop the Pandemic Unemployment Payment to over 100 people who had traveled abroad.
It’s after checks were carried out by the Department of Social Protection at airports.
The move has been described as ‘shocking and shambolic’ by People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett.
However Fine Gael Senator Garret Ahearn says the rules are clear.
“Anyone who is on social welfare or P.U.P can go (on holiday) for 14 days maximum but beyond that you shouldn’t be getting P.U.P payment.
“So if you go abroad for any stretch of time it means you come home and you have to self isolate for 14 days which automatically means you can’t work.”
“It’s a very small number and in terms of the amount of people who received that payment – at the height of it, it was 598,000 – we’re talking about 104 people so its not like there’s people at the gates trying to catch everyone going away.”
