Mr. Alan Flynn:

On the two regulations which the Minister signed, one of them covers supplementary welfare allowance and the other covers the consolidated claims payment and control regulations which apply to a range of schemes. This disregard which was provided initially in 2022 applies generally across all social assistance schemes, whether it is, for example, State pension non-contributory, disability allowance or jobseeker's allowance. It is not specific to any particular scheme in the social assistance framework of schemes. On the question about how many are involved, we track the means assessments that are tagged for this particular disregard and there have been approximately 650 such disregards associated with claims since the introduction of the facility in 2022. Currently there are about 250 claims in payment which have regard to this disregard.