Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If nothing else, that is what is driving me, not the money. If we get money, we will spend it. Whether we get it from the recovering economy or from this pot, we will spend it. We will spend whatever money we get. The driver for me is that there are people in precarious positions who could be let go this Friday through no fault of their own. They do not get paid sick leave or paid holidays. It will be dealt with. That is all I can say to the Deputy and it is a categorical commitment. To be clear, the paper compiled by my Department on the anomalies and the working suggestions to resolve it will be sent to the next Cabinet sub-committee. That will happen before Christmas or immediately after Christmas. So as the Deputy does not think I am misleading him, there is a Cabinet sub-committee meeting today. The paper is not quite ready to be put on the agenda today, but if there is another one next week or next month, it will be on that agenda and what the paper is and what the options are will be made public to the Deputy. I would value Deputy O'Dea's support in dealing with that.

In answer to Deputy Collins, the reason it is going to a Cabinet sub-committee is because I do not have the money to fix the anomaly right now. If I did have the money, we would most likely not have to ask for money. We in the Department do not have the money to fix it within the finances allocated to us for next year. It has to go through the normal methods of seeking the cross-departmental commitment that it is agreeable that this is how we fix it and to determine how best to find the money to fix it. Deputy Collins is not the only person who will get calls afterwards. That money does not currently exist in anybody's Department which is why it has to go to the Cabinet sub-committee to try to determine if the options we are going to provide are agreeable to other Departments, and then to determine how quickly we can fix it based on the resources we have. That is the commitment and roadmap. That paper and the options in it will go to the next Cabinet sub-committee meeting, and once that committee has considered it, I assume it will then allow us to bring it to a full Cabinet meeting and it will be made public as soon as I can do so.