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

Everybody has to have a review completed. Whether it is conducted with information held within the Department, it still has to take place. For example, an operative in Sligo has to check the record and if he or she can find all of the gaps, he or she can conduct the review without the intervention of the claimant and it will be completed more quickly than if he or she has to invite the claimant to come forward to fill in the gaps. There are 87,000 records that need to be gone through. Everyone has to go through a review by one of the 120 members of staff to whom I referred. We did not pick the cases without gaps first, as that would not have been fair. Instead, it has been done chronologically. Everybody's case will be reached and all those with information to give us are encouraged to share it with us as quickly as possible. I am told that almost 24,000 requests for information have been issued to date but fewer than half have responded.