Mr. Jerry Murphy:

I share the Deputy's concern. We are not going back to a manual payment system and payments to the sector will always be automated. The question for us is the degree of automation that there will be at the start and when the starting point will be. We have questions to answer before we can give members details of the full set of components and when each component can be brought into place to serve both parents and the sector.

We have started the procurement process and have an ICT company in place to develop the architecture. There is a cooling-off period at the moment but it will be starting work quite soon. As soon as there is clarity on the non-universal elements, we will be able to be clear with the sector.