John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. McKeon for his opening statement. Before I open the discussion to members, I have one general question. Mr. McKeon set out in some detail the technical issues relating to IT and the change of system. One of the real issues for members and the public was the lack of information and access. The public could not get through to the Department by phone and neither could we. At what stage did Mr .McKeon realise there were significant difficulties in that regard? He stated that the Department deployed additional staff to process old-form certificates received from GPs. Why was no additional support provided for the helpline? It is clear that the Department knew there was a problem but the communication issue was not addressed. People were frustrated not to be able to find out if there was a problem with their particular payment. When people first came to me with such issues, I thought they were individual problems rather than a systemic issue.