The €350 pandemic unemployment payment will be extended for months and not weeks, the Taoiseach has confirmed.
However, people will only continue to receive the full amount if they were working full-time before the pandemic.
The payment will be slashed for part-time workers, but Leo Varadkar says they will still be making more than they were before the health crisis.
He told the Dail: "The pandemic unemployment payment expires on the eighth of June.
"The Government decision on the future of the payment will be made tomorrow morning.
"But I want to give these three assurances to everyone in receipt of the payment today.
"First of all it will be extended, for months not weeks.
"Secondly, no one working full time before the pandemic will see their payment cut. It will stay at €350 a week.
"Some people who were working part-time will see their payment reduced, but their weekly payment will still be more than what they were earning on a weekly basis before the pandemic."
The official Government announcement will be made on Friday morning, before confirmation that Ireland will move into phase two of easing lockdown restrictions.
Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar said we have "witnessed the absence of moral leadership" following the killing of George Floyd in the United States.
The Fine Gael leader said there has been absence of "words of understanding, comfort or healing".
Speaking on Thursday, he told the Dail: "We have also seen genuine revulsion at the heavy-handed response, in some instances, towards peaceful protesters and journalists.
"We've witnessed the absence of moral leadership or words of understanding comfort or healing from whence they should have come."
