Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to address the questions from Deputy Rabbitte and Deputy Funchion on when the system will be available online, the concerns around working with providers and especially parents to ensure the appropriate information is provided and that there is awareness raising in terms of how this works, the level of engagement with the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners as well as the need to train people to deliver all of that. That is all part of what we are currently working on. We are planning an intensive information and awareness raising campaign for parents particularly but also providers with regard to understanding the system, how one goes about applying and how that works. That will be rolled out in the months prior to September and we have been working intensively on that from a communications perspective.

In terms of the development of the system and its readiness, Deputies will be aware that the path we have set ourselves is very ambitious. Delivering a child care system that will be fair and equal, especially for the sake of the parents, the children and the families, is not easy. A huge amount of work is taking place on that. As members will appreciate and as the Chairman has identified, the legislative timetable is tight, and I will answer the questions and then ask Mr. Murphy and his colleague to come in also, but the timetable is also tight in terms of the legal information and payment infrastructure we need to put in place.

What we are putting in place now will be there for generations of Irish families. We are extremely conscious of the need to get it right. I should say with that in mind that it is possible the systems will not be fully automated by September. This would place an administrative burden on the Department and on Pobal. We might not have a fully automated system that delivers everything by September 2017. As Deputy Rabbitte said, we need to integrate data from the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners so that the system can calculate every family's net income and provide the subsidy they will receive. We need to test the information technology system rigorously to ensure it works in complicated family circumstances. We need to get it right. We do not want a system that fails.

Our intention is that parents will be able to apply online from the home or office computer. The universal payment for children under the age of three will be fairly straightforward because it will not require the same level of calculation as the targeted measure. The other targeted payments will require more work and might therefore take longer. Some applications might have to be assessed in a manual fashion while we are finishing the development of the new systems. It could be a semi-automatic payment. The intention is that the parents will apply. I expect that universal payments will be determined fairly quickly, but it might take a little more time for targeted payments to be determined. The bottom line is that families will benefit from September. We will get a much clearer view of this from the project board, which contains officials from the Department of Social Protection and the Revenue Commissioners, by the end of this month. I will be happy to follow this matter up with the members of the committee at that stage by clearly communicating how this is going to work. I guess I am saying now that regardless of what happens, our bottom line is that families will benefit from September. I will give way to Mr. Gerry Murphy and Mr. David Burke.