Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has said that he believes the "vast majority" of people receiving Covid support payments will be back in work by September.
Mr Varadkar was speaking as details of the phasing out of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the Employee Wage Subsidy Scheme were unveiled.
The Tanaiste admitted that he may be "over confident" but added that with the return of a number of sectors in the coming months he believed that most people would be back in work by the time the payment is slashed.
The PUP scheme will close to new applicants from 1 July in recognition that, at that stage, there should be no new job lay-offs that are directly attributable to public health restrictions.
The current weekly rates of support will be gradually reduced over three phases by €50 increments before being phased out entirely by February should the reopening go as planned
The first phase of rate changes will apply from 7 September provided progress on re-opening continues.
Speaking on RTE's Prime Time Mr Varadkar said: "By September and certainly by February when it's phased out fully, I expect the vast majority of people who are now in receipt of the PUP to either have returned to their old jobs, or found new ones.
"Perhaps I'm over confident but I honestly believe this. By July we're going to see the return of aviation and international tourism and with every adult fully vaccinated by September I think we will be hearing that wedding band playing again.
"The vast majority of people on the payment will be back [at work] by September. Perhaps not all but not far off."
Meanwhile the Government has indicated social welfare payments could be linked to a person’s previous income before they lost their job under plans to reform the system.
Asked if she thinks the base Jobseeker’s Allowance should be raised so people have a little bit more money after announcements about cuts to the Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP), Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys confirmed her Department officials are looking at a “pay-related benefit.”
Speaking to reporters at Government Buildings, Ms Humphreys said: “I think one of the things that we have learned from the pandemic is that when people suddenly lose their jobs, we don't want to see that cliff edge income drop because they have entered into commitments commensurate with their income.
“So we do need to avoid that drop, and I think that's where we can look at - and I've asked my officials to look at pay-related benefits and I think that we need to do that.
“My officials are looking at that specifically.”
