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

I am all for providing certainty and stability, as evidenced by what I am attempting to do with social welfare payments. I have said on a number of occasions that once the legislation is passed and the regulations are signed, we will start the review process for the 80,000 or so people involved, each of whom has received a letter. They have all been invited to come forward. Where there are gaps in their payments or contribution history, they have been invited to fill them in. The Chairman seems to be making an assumption that the onus to provide the information is on the Department, but we can only move so fast with the information given to us. As it has been provided, reviews have taken place. Some 8,500 people have received a completed review and been given a payment. There is no delay on the part of the Department. We took on 120 staff specifically to do this job. They are reviewing on a daily basis the cases of people who were adversely affected by the changes made in 2012. In some cases, there has been no change following the review, but for 80% there is an uplift, backdated to March 2018, while the others carry on as before. As long as there are people affected, they will continue to receive a service from us. We will not stop until the review for everybody review has been completed.