The Government will seek to have the Dáil rush through authorisation for billions of euro in additional funding for social welfare payments next week amid concerns that the Department of Social Protection will effectively run out of money in early June. The move has been made more complex as the Opposition will seek to press Ministers to guarantee there will be no cuts to the current €350 weekly Covid-19 unemployment payment before the crucial vote on spending takes place. In a letter to the Dáil’s business committee, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said the department’s current budget of €8.6 billion is likely to be 90 per cent spent by the end of May and fully spent by early June. The Dáil was due to vote on department budgets for 2020 at the start of the year but because a general election was called, the vote was never held. The Government is currently spending money under a rule which allows it to use four-fifths of the previous year’s budget while it waits for Dáil approval.
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