Briefing on the government's response to COVID-19 - Tuesday 2 June 2020

Delivered by Elizabeth Canavan, Assistant Secretary General, Department of the Taoiseach

Good Morning,

Long weekends are not what we are used to at the moment - these are times where traditionally we would have been meeting up with family and friends and likely travelling to different parts of the country.

There is no doubt that places were busier and lots of people got out and about. With the fine weather that is completely understandable and it has been a great opportunity to enjoy our local amenities.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for sticking with the guidance. We know there were problems in a small number of places but An Garda Siochana have told us that despite how busy places were, lots of people continue to comply and are trying to stay in their small groups and two metres apart.

We also didn’t see the kind of traffic issues we might normally have at many amenities with such beautiful weather, so again, it is clear that many, many people did not travel outside their own locality.

We know it has been tough, however, as we approach the end of Phase 1 of the Roadmap, we can see that the efforts everyone has made are continuing to benefit our communities.

Hopefully, that gives us a very good chance of moving to Phase 2 as scheduled, if we can keep it up for a few more days.

In the meantime, we need to keep reminding ourselves that throughout the phases, in order to keep the virus at bay, we must continue to hold on to our new habits including:

• maintain social distancing at all times, even when meeting with friends or loved ones
• keep hands clean, washing them regularly and be mindful to avoid unnecessary touching of your face
• use good cough and sneeze etiquette

Over 57,800 employers are now registered with Revenue for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.

Over 508,100 employees have now received at least one payment under scheme. This does not include additional employees who may receive a subsidy as a result of payments generated today.

Today (2 June), Revenue has generated further payments to employers under the scheme of €19.1 million.

These payments will be in the bank accounts of the majority of the respective employers tomorrow (3 June).

The cumulative value of payments made to employers under the scheme is €1.31 billion (€1,315 million).

Last week, the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform confirmed that a change to the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) will be made to accommodate the salaries of those who have returned to work after a period of maternity or adoptive leave and who may not have been on the payroll of their employer on 29 February, or been paid in either January or February 2020 – which were requirements for qualification for the scheme.

This will be implemented from 26 March, where applicable.

The change being made will allow for consistent treatment with other employees who were on the payroll on 29 February.

The system updates to support this change should be operational from 12 June 2020.

On Friday, the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation announced that the Registrar of Companies has decided to extend the current arrangement in relation to the filing of annual returns. The Registrar had announced in March that all annual returns due to be filed by any company between 18 March and 30 June 2020 would be deemed to have been filed on time if all elements of the annual return were completed and filed by 30 June.

The Registrar has now decided to extend this arrangement until 31 October 2020.

The Registrar has also decided to extend the arrangement in relation to entities such as industrial and provident societies, friendly societies and trade unions that are required to file with the Registry of Friendly Societies until 31 December 2020.

More information is available on www.cro.ie.

Today, approximately 543,000 people who were unemployed last week will receive their weekly payment of €350 under the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment scheme.

This is a reduction of approximately 36,000 on the number of people paid at the same point last week.

This payment will be available today in their nominated bank account or Post Office.

The overall value of the weekly payment is in the region of €190 million.

Last week, approximately 28,400 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment closed their claim as they had returned to work as part of the first phase of the Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business.

Approximately 20,100 of these are receiving their last unemployment payment this week because they were unemployed in the payment week.

If you are returning to work today, you should close your claim as you return to work. If you are starting work later in the week, you should close your claim on the day you return to employment.

To close your unemployment claim, you should log on to gov.ie, click on the link for the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment and follow the instructions to close your claim.

The Community Call Fora, run by the local authorities, continue to provide help and support to those in need in communities around the country. Over the bank holiday weekend, they received approximately 560 calls and made approximately 110 follow-up calls to people who have contacted them.

Nationally, since 31 March, the Community Call Fora have received over 44,000 calls and have made almost 18,000 follow-up calls.

Remember, you can find your local Community Call helpline number here.

You can also contact ALONE on 0818 222 024 if you are experiencing difficulties or just want someone to talk to.

The Department of Rural and Community Development has announced a further investment of €200,000 to support the provision of more eBooks and eAudiobooks in order to meet the significant increase in demand for access to the public library online service during the COVID-19 emergency. This is in addition to the €200,000 which was invested in March.

A fund of €20,000 to support the provision of an EasyReader collection of books for emerging adult readers and people with literacy needs was also announced. The funding will be directed through the Local Government Management Agency.

Since the public libraries closed on 12 March there has been an average of 504 new members registering daily for the Borrowbox service which provides eBooks and eAudiobooks to library members, compared to the daily average of 138 that registered previously in 2020, a 264% increase. The average number of daily eBook loans prior to 12 March was 1,106 but since then it is more than double that figure with a daily average of 2,502.

Apart from ebooks and audiobooks, libraries have worked hard to provide a host of other services online during the emergency. Library staff are continuing to innovate online with STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Maths) Workshops, Virtual Coding Workshops, virtual bookclubs, and online storytimes.

The Spring into Storytime reading programme which would normally be held in libraries nationwide has been delivered entirely online instead with 302,787 views of the 476 storytime videos to date, compared to total attendances of 20,500 in the library branches during last year’s entire programme. To access any of these great services you should join the library. It is free, and you can join online using the Libraries Ireland website.

Last week the Department of Rural and Community Development also announced funding of €10 million under the Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme for 2020. The funding which will support tourism and community wellbeing in post COVID-19 recovery is one element of a €30 million package of co-ordinated and complementary supports launched by the department as part of the government’s Rural Development Investment Programme.

The scheme provides funding for the development of new and existing outdoor recreational infrastructure in rural areas such as cycleways, walking trails, blueways and mountain access routes and is funded by the department in partnership with Fáilte Ireland. Indeed, we have seen how important outdoor recreation has been to us during this emergency, with significantly increased numbers of people out walking, cycling and running in the past few months.

We have probably all discovered amenities in our locality which we didn’t use as much as we might. Perhaps another benefit we weren’t expecting from the restrictions.

On Friday, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs announced a number of developments to assist childcare providers and parents to plan for the reopening of services on 29 June.

Expert guidance from the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) has been provided specifically for the childcare sector.

This guidance focuses on a “play pod” model, which restricts interactions between closed groups of children and adults as an alternative to social distancing, which is not possible with young children. The purpose of ‘play-pods’ is to limit the number of people a child has contact with, to facilitate tracing, and to support close, positive interactions between children and their caregivers.

Services will now be asked to apply the guidance to their setting and determine what capacity they may offer. As services reopen, the Department of Children and Youth Affairs will keep the operation of the guidance under close review and take appropriate updated action as required.

The department also announced which children would be eligible to resume full or part-time childcare services from 29 June.

Subject to local capacity, services are encouraged to support:

• children of health and social care workers, other frontline workers, childcare practitioners and parents who need access to childcare in order to return to work
• vulnerable children sponsored under the National Childcare Scheme(NCS) (for example, children who are homeless and Tusla referrals) and children funded through legacy childcare schemes who are experiencing poverty, disadvantage or child welfare issues
• children with disabilities who previously attended part or full-time early learning and care, including those preparing to start school in September
• children previously registered in childcare services on 12 March, whose parents continue to need childcare for employment or training purposes and who were assured that they would retain their place through conditions attached to the department’s Temporary Wage Subsidy Childcare Scheme (TWSCS)

If capacity issues emerge, priority should be given to the children of essential or frontline workers.

Childminders will also be able to resume looking after children in the childminder’s home from 29 June, while complying with HPSC advice.

Irish Water has confirmed that there has been a very significant increase in water usage in the past week and in particular over the bank holiday weekend.

We must all prioritise handwashing.

Irish Water is today again appealing to the public and to businesses to make every effort to conserve water by discontinuing non-essential usage such as the operation of power-washers; by using a watering can rather than a hose in the garden; by taking showers over baths; and by fixing any dripping taps where it is possible to do so.

It is now very likely that a Water Conservation Order (a ‘hosepipe ban’) will be necessary to conserve water supplies as demand for water continues to soar and the drought conditions continue.

That’s all from me today. As you know, there will be more information later this week on how we are progressing and what’s happening next in the Roadmap.

Thank You.