LEO MILKERS JIBE LEAVES SOUR TASTE

People ‘making more’ not working. Plan to cut Covid unemployment pay. SF hit back at Varadkar ‘pot shots’

- FERGHAL BLANEY

TOUGH TIMES Leo Varadkar and Health Minister Simon Harris yesterday

LEO Varadkar has been slammed for accusing people left jobless by the coronavirus pandemic of milking the system.

The Taoiseach said there are people “making more” from the emergency unemployment benefits than if they were at work.

And he suggested they won’t return to work unless the Government slashes payments.

Mr Varadkar said he plans to cut coronavirus unemployment benefits ahead of the special wage subsidies to address this.

Sinn Fein finance spokesman Pearse Doherty hit back at the “Tory” Taoiseach.

He said it was completely inappropriate for Mr Varadkar “to once again take gratuitous pot shots at the most underpaid in society”. Mr Varadkar was speaking to the Dermot and Dave Show on Today FM yesterday morning.

He said: “There are in fact people making more on the Covid payments than they were working part-time and some employers are actually telling us that it’s hard to get people to go back to work because of that.

“Having said that, I don’t think it will be possible to discontinue it at the middle of June, we’ll have to go beyond that because people have to be given the opportunity to return to work and there are lots of businesses that still won’t be able to reopen at the middle of June, so we do intend to extend it.

“I can’t say exactly for how long it will be extended.