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

It is really too early to give a definitive answer to Deputy O'Sullivan's first question about the timeline. I am trying to outline the various numerous steps, much of which are technical and are in the context of the peer review process. We have no control over the steps we must go through. To be a part of this process is to ensure that mistakes of the past such as PPARS are not repeated. As members may be aware, a peer review is an independent structured review of a programme or project which is carried out at key decision points in the project. It must approve each phase of the development before it will grant approval to move on. There are seven stages to this. I have also indicated that we must do quite a bit of robust testing and piloting of the systems because we are expecting more than 100,000 applications. I do not have any intention of repeating PPARS. Having said all that, it is not possible to say now exactly when it will be delivered. We are delineating the pieces of the process to ensure its delivery as soon as possible. What I can say, though, is that I am absolutely committed to driving this as quickly as I can. As the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer comes under the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, I will be in conversation with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, about ensuring to the best of our ability that this can go ahead as quickly as possible while making sure everything is done right. It will be later that we will have a deeper sense of when we can say it will be delivered.

Regarding Deputy O'Sullivan's second set of questions about what we are doing this September, I will deliver in September. We have put in place a number of pieces to ensure that a very high percentage of families we intended to benefit in September 2017 will benefit. I emphasise that it is very important that, as members go back to their constituencies, the message that goes out is that the support for families is available and we have estimated, as I have indicated, that up to 70,000 children will benefit. However, this is an estimate, and some families may not be captured in what we had originally intended.

That may be the case but we are not absolutely sure.

In response to the Deputy's questions on the providers and the families being concerned I am aware of that and it is very important to emphasise it. The officials are also aware of it and we will increase our communication capacity over the next couple of weeks and into August when they begin to sign up. I have indicated we have been around the country engaging with the providers. They come back to us with questions. We have established a very strong infrastructure within the systems and the officials are working to answer those questions in many different ways. The Deputy's question on monitoring is a good one. I understand that there are systems in place for monitoring to see how it is as we move closer to September. If the officials want to add more technical details I am happy that they do so.