He said there will be "no cliff-edge" for support payments, however, a new plan will be looked at towards the end of May.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has confirmed that a new financial plan to support individuals and businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic will come into effect towards the end of May. Speaking on RTE's Morning Ireland on Friday, Martin said that there will be "no cliff-edge" for the withdrawal of pandemic unemployment payments (PUP), wage subsidy schemes, or other support payments. "We're going to develop, and have been developing and have been formulating a national economic recovery plan, so there will be no cliff-edge in terms of a sudden end to the variety of supports, and indeed even in terms of the serious supports," he said. The Taoiseach said that the Government will also be extending supports for businesses even after they reopen in the coming months, as well as offering continued tax relief to sectors as they reopen. He added that the Cabinet is also looking at ways to offer help "in terms of medium-term support" to the hospitality sector as it begins to return. "There is a range of areas that we're going to have to look at that would underpin a recovery in the sectors that have been more severely hit than others," he added. "It will be a new approach and a new direction coming towards I would say the end of May, around that period or in that period."