Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am referring more to Ms O'Donoghue's sense or belief that "we have got our act together", as she put it, in respect of the primacy schemes, and that more efficient processes in regard to primary schemes had led to this drop. I know there has been some improvement in respect of some schemes. However, I am sure other Deputies might also verify that, increasingly, there is a view among the population that when a person makes an application for a payment, the first instinct of the system is to refuse, and the person is then into an appeals process. My own evidence, which is subjective and entirely unscientific, is that this is increasingly the case. Yet, Ms O'Donoghue said "we have got our act together" in terms of the primary schemes and, therefore, this has alleviated the spend.