Ms Josephine Feehily:

We had to make some judgments. We decided, given that we will be beginning with the non-engagers, to spread the money over as many weeks or months as possible and we decided to begin with the PAYE sector. I am sorry Deputy Fleming is not here because he gave me grief at the PAC about this issue. If we begin later they will have fewer weeks and months over which to spread the payment. That is the reason we are starting with people in the PAYE sector and the occupational pension sector. The reason the social welfare category comes next is that anyone whose only income is a social welfare payment is, by definition, entitled to a deferral and we will be reminding them of that fact. That is simply a fact of the numbers. If a person's only income is a social welfare payment of any kind then, by definition, she is entitled to a deferral. While we are moving at one level to deal with PAYE workers, we will be reminding people whose only income is social welfare that they should have claimed a deferral. That is the categorisation. The reason I maintain it is about right is that the self-assessed are not left to the end. From the beginning, from 1 July, if the self-assessed have not paid the tax they are non-compliant and, therefore, they will not be entitled to tax clearance. We are moving evenly for both of them.

I am unsure which particular media report Deputy McDonald was referring to, but we have what I term a backstop for the self-assessed. This means that by the time they come to file their income tax returns, if they have not filed, they will pay a significant penalty in the form of a surcharge.

We will move on them in parallel and they will be affected immediately in respect of tax clearance. The final piece will come in October. It is not the case that it will start in October.