Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Of course, and none of us want to be here. Can we just take a step back for a moment. First of all, let us acknowledge that these payments should have happened earlier this year and that, while 126,000 and more by the end of the week have been paid, there are still tens of thousands who have not been paid. Let us also reflect that one of the things I and the Government were determined on was that this was going to be a genuine recognition and that it would be good by international comparisons, which it is. Would I prefer that these workers had the €1,000 in June rather than in December? Yes, but it is still good that it is €1,000 being paid. Critically, credit is due to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, in that, when I asked him if we could make this payment tax-free, and very little gets made tax-free, he agreed it could. I said we could not give people €1,000 and then take €500 or more back in tax. Normally, that is what would happen. I accept we would have all liked the payment to have been made earlier, but there is still approximately €190 million in tax-free money being paid out to approximately 190,000 men and women in our system and, ultimately, that is good thing.