Mr. Brian Purcell:

We got the indication from the Department of a number that will not apply to new beneficiaries. At the moment, we must look at which allowances are being paid and where that is going to go. I suppose there are a number of issues relating to that. The first challenge is to determine how these allowances, among those that have been abolished for the new beneficiaries but still apply to current beneficiaries, can be dealt with. The second would be to look at the ones that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has stated would remain in payment yet would be subject to modification as to what exactly those modifications would be. Overlapping or covering all of that is doing that in consultation, given the fact that the exercise has to be carried out within the parameters of the Croke Park agreement. If there is to be any agreement on that, it will have to be done on that particular basis.