Mr. Jim Breslin:

On the last point, ultimately it is a matter for the Estimates and for the Government but I am conscious of the points made by all members. Deputy Mitchell O’Connor said there are people who might have applied for the old scheme, and if they were applying now they might have benefited from it but cannot do so. If we are successful in getting all the way to primary legislation and getting a Bill through the House, we would not want to be in a situation where we could not commence the legislation because we had not made any provision so we will ring-fence the existing resources and we may need to consider making some provision, albeit it not a full year provision for 2016.

It will be a matter for the Oireachtas to take charge of the legislation once it arrives over here and it will be timetabled as laid down. We might have a contingency in place that if it was to progress we would not delay its implementation. That is something we will look at.