Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not think we are referring here to people who could not be bothered; we are talking about people who were on maternity leave, on sick leave or who were not in a position to do it at the time. They were given the five years to get whatever qualifications were required to move themselves over but they did not do that in the time provided. Is the Minister of State certain that we are only talking about that group of between 30 and 40 people? It seems a little broader and appears to include people who are not in that group. We are talking here about people who could have but who did not, for various reasons including maternity leave, sick leave or study abroad, apply to be included on the specialist register. It is limited to that group and there is nobody who would fall outside of the scope of that group who could benefit from this. Is that correct? I am happy to take the Minister of State's word on that but my reading of it is that it is sufficiently open-ended to benefit people who are not in that small group of 30 to 40 people. We are talking about people who, between 2008 and 2013, would have had the opportunity to go on the specialist register but did not do so. My reading of this is that people who are not in that tight little group could benefit from it and could get themselves onto the specialist register. If that is the case, I cannot support it but if the Minister of State is confident that this is ring-fenced and only applies to that very tight group, then I will support it.