Ms Louise McGirr:

I am thankful for the question. I understand the frustration in this regard. To go back to the initial Government decision, it required additional criteria to be put in place. This is where much of the frustration stems from. While people thought the Government had made the decision, as do the Minister and the other members of the Government, the issue was that the criteria concerned are quite specific around who was affected. This took several months to clarify in terms of who was included and what were the eligibility criteria. I say this because the payment is not for everybody. This is where some of the delays have happened. I refer to trying to isolate those who are eligible.

As the Minister referred to, it was necessary to work with many of the representative bodies and managers to ensure everybody understood who was part of the scheme. The process was then devolved to hospitals to apply these criteria. It was not, then, a case of just making the payment and that was it done. This process involved people having to be eligible and certified for this payment. This is what has really caused a great deal of the delay experienced in respect of some of the HSE staff, certainly. They have all been paid now, as have staff in the section 38 organisations. Huge swathes of people, therefore, have been paid. It is the significant majority of people.

Regarding the private organisations and the section 39 entities, I understand that the situation here looks very frustrating. Some of those people were really on the front line in nursing homes and other areas and certainly deserve this payment. The best reassurance I can give is that this process is now moving really quickly. It took time to set up because we had to go to tender and through the proper processes. This has taken a couple of months, just by its nature. The 90% statistic the Minister referred to mainly shows duplication, where people are being put in for multiple organisations. This is why it is important we do stop this happening. The company dealing with this issue has set up a helpline and it is getting thousands of calls. It is doing everything it can. The process, therefore, is happening very quickly now that it has been set up. I appreciate, however, the frustration that exists. It remains a major priority to get this done as fast as possible.