John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)

There is an overall welcome for this Bill in the House across all parties. It is something that should be welcomed. I thank Ms Barry and Mr. Bowes for their contributions today and for their proposed amendments to the Bill. It is important that members go through the amendments. We got a fair understanding today of some of the amendments that have been put forward for very good reasons. There are significant complexities associated with a few of them and they have to be teased out more. It is good that they will meet the Minister tomorrow and that there is direct engagement with FLAC.

I give them a particular thanks to them for bringing this forward and for helping John O'Meara and the O'Meara family. I acknowledge that family as a committee because this Bill would not be before us if not for John O'Meara and the O'Meara family.

We have discussed the 2010 qualifying criteria for cohabitants a lot today. Do the witnesses think that legislation or regulation is still to the fore? Could it be updated in terms of those obligations? I assume the Bill will pass at some stage because there is overall support for it, whether the amendments are included. Whenever this Bill is passed, a public awareness campaign should be undertaken to encompass everybody who should have been included in it from the date of the judgment. That would be very important. People who would have applied but were told not to as they did not qualify would be in a position to apply retrospectively. In some cases, people may have received some other social welfare support during that time, which will have to be considered. There needs to be some level of individual circumstances applied as part of this whole application process. Will the witnesses comment on this in terms of the qualifying criteria for the 2010 Act? Are they still happy with how that is reviewed and looked at? Do they have any further comments?