State now paying two thirds of all workers in Kerry

MORE than 33,000 people in Kerry are now getting State payments due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

As of Monday, 21,800 people in Kerry were in receipt of the emergency €350 a week Pandemic Payment while the wages of a further 10,400 workers are being covered by the Wage Subsidy Scheme for employers.

An additional 900 people are receiving the weekly Illness Benefit for people who are self isolating because they have or had COVID-19; are linked to a case or are symptomatic.

That 33,000 figure equates to almost two thirds of Kerry’s roughly 55,000-strong workforce as recorded in the 2016 Census.

The latest figures from the Department of Social Protection show that – as of Monday

May 11 – a total of 21,800 workers in Kerry have received the payment having been laid off suddenly as a result of COVID-19.

Monday’s figure represents a slight drop – of 400 on the previous week. It is the first time the numbers have fallen in Kerry since the payment was introduced.

Meanwhile figures from Revenue – which runs the Wage Subsidy Scheme – shows that over 1,500 employers in Kerry have availed of the programme.

According to Revenue 26 per cent of all business in Kerry that are eligible for the payment have now applied for it with State cash being used to pay 10,400 employees.

Those figures refer to Kerry based employers and the wages of many more Kerry workers, employed by firms based outside the county, are likely to be State supported.