Mr. Paul Savage:

People can expect to see a better performance and much more streamlined and efficient system. Payments will get out much quicker and to higher numbers of people next year. That is the undertaking we have made because we have learned those lessons on those particular elements. Over the last 12 months or more, we have been systematically working through different kinds of issues and problems, putting in IT fixes across a range of different things. Some of them are quite technical and to do with how we process rotational actions. How do we resolve issues around discrepancies between data between different systems? How do we make sure we have the change of ownership functionality properly recorded and properly functioning?

Those particular problems - and they fall into a range of other categories - have been dealt with one by one over the last number of months. They are now functioning, working well and have been tested. We know they are working now in terms of the completion of the advanced and balancing payments. We are confident they will work and that those elements will be in place now for when the advance payments start in November. Effectively, the hard work is now done. The hard yards have been run because we have the systems in place now and they provide a more long term solution than what was possible over the last 12 to 18 months.