Dr. Ciaran Byrne:

The Deputy is right. I looked at the allowances as he called them out. They are the ones that are the qualifying criteria. My understanding as regards the invalidity pension, and I am going from memory rather than knowledge, is that work was done on that and that call was made previously. Eligibility for the scheme, however, is ultimately a policy matter for our Department. We cannot comment too much on who should or should not be in the loop but we recognise that at this point, as the Deputy identified, invalidity pension is not one of the criteria.