Ms Teresa Leonard:

The implementation of the proposal is couched in the knowledge that the decision must be made by Government. Following the discussions that are taking place on this very good report the Government will make a decision. In the event that a decision is made, as pointed out by Ms Mangan, it would take the Department a period of time to implement the proposal but we would be able to do so. A number of issues require to be addressed in order to implement such major change in terms of policy, legislation, technical issues and operational issues. We already have universal payments partly in place. Reference was made to the fact that it just happens but it does not just happen; it takes a bit of work to make it happen. In conjunction with that we would have to do quite a lot of work but it is doable should a decision be made by Government in that regard.