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

It is a question of how long is a piece of string. I cannot give a definitive answer because it entirely depends on the recovery of the economy. As there is more money to spend and more money is given to me, we will have more money to do the things that we want to do. As I said yesterday, if all we were doing this year was giving a €5 increase and that was it, the likelihood is it could have started much earlier in the year, but because there were a variety of other issues that we needed to address this year, such as lone parent income disregards and the fuel allowance, I could not justify it. This is why we tried to give as much as possible as early as possible to everybody. As the economy recovers, I hope I will get more money, assuming I am still here, and if we get more money we will be able to pay people earlier. The Deputy is right that it should be 1 January. That is what it should be if things were perfect. The economy is only recovering and we will get there.