Official figures show that level five restrictions introduced late last month had a significant impact on the labour market and the numbers using public transport.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) said the number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) in the last week of October was the highest since July.

The figure rose for the fourth successive week to almost 330,000 in the week to 1 November. Almost a quarter of the recipients were aged between 25 and 44.

540,000 on supports

The Government moved the country to level three restrictions under its COVID-19 plan early in October, while level five measures came into effect from 21 October.

This led to a big rise in the PUP figure compared with September, when just over 217,000 people were receiving the payment.

When added to the 211,600 people on the Live Register, this meant more than 540,000 people were receiving some type of income support.

The number of people on the Live Register in October was down 4,400 compared with September.

The CSO’s figures do not yet include the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS), which replaced the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) at the start of September 2020. The statistics body says it is working with Revenue to include this data as soon as possible.

Rail suffers biggest drop

Separate CSO figures showed that the introduction of tighter COVID-19 restrictions last month halted a steady increase in the volume of cars on Irish roads.

Traffic volumes for the week beginning 25 October were 25.5% lower in regional locations and 22.3% lower in Dublin than the previous week. In the same week, the number of journeys by bus and rail fell by 36.8%.

COVID-19 restrictions have had a severe impact on public transport, with the number of passengers falling to around 25% of pre-pandemic levels after level five restrictions were introduced. Rail suffered the most dramatic drop — falling to 86.8% of pre-COVID levels in late October.

The volume of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), however, is now greater than it was for the same period last year in both Dublin and the regional locations measured.

Despite the general drop in traffic volumes, there were 11 more fatalities on Irish roads in the first nine months of 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.