An economist at UCC thinks the country can afford the Covid emergency payments for another six months.
589,000 people are on the pandemic unemployment payment while over 456,000 are on the wage subsidy scheme.
Economist at UCC, Seamus Coffey, says the cash will run out if no changes are made to the economy.
"Without any change it can probably go on for about another six months, and then you'd be looking for something to change, for the economy to go through a very quick reboot, or some form of additional funding source becoming available for the government, most likely through the ECB.
"But there is going to be changes, we hope that the economy is going to open up over the next couple of weeks."
