There's been a restoration of the higher, €350 a week rate of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment for those who earned more than €400 a week before losing their jobs.
Six weeks of level five restrictions will kick in from midnight Wednesday night with the likely loss of 150,000 jobs.
People will be told to stay at home and only venture beyond 5km from their homes in limited circumstances.
All non-essential retail is to close, with schools, creches and construction sites remaining open.
At the announcement last night Tánaiste Leo Varadkar defended not moving to level five two weeks ago, when he was highly critical of NPHET:
