Tapering of furlough scheme premature - Murphy

Finance Minister, Conor Murphy has said the announcement from Chancellor Rishi Sunak today that the British government’s tapering of the Job Retention Scheme is premature given our circumstances.

Minister Murphy said: “The economic priority during this public health crisis is to protect jobs and the effort that has gone into this to date has been commendable.

“The economic recovery is still in its infancy and it will be some time before businesses are back to their pre-pandemic trading level.

 "While I welcome the extension of the self-employment scheme the tapering of the job retention scheme from August is premature. I am concerned it could lead to redundancies, particularly in the hardest hit industries such as hospitality, retail and leisure.

“I will be raising these issues with Treasury and stressing the need to protect jobs and livelihoods.”

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