Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

What we did, in terms of the review, was we reviewed every single week the loans that were out, the loans that were coming in and the applications. That was our concern at that point. One needs to bear in mind that this was done under enormous pressure. The aim was to get the funding out to businesses quickly. From our perspective, we reviewed on a weekly basis. We sat down and looked at who was gaining and who was not, and that allowed us to adapt the scheme, as the Deputy pointed out, for other cohorts very quickly. In the normal course of events, it would take us more than a year to design and roll out a scheme like this. We did it in a matter of weeks. I am quite satisfied that the review kept control of the numbers and that we were plugging gaps.

I would also mention again that we adapted it on a number of occasions for various counties that went into lockdown, such as Laois, Offaly and Kildare. We did extra payouts for the wet pubs at the time in Dublin and Donegal. In fact, it was a constant review that we were doing to pick up where there were needs.

We were satisfied, as we went in. Again, we worked very closely with our stakeholders, both in terms of the regular retail and enterprise forums we have. We were picking up what was happening on the ground. Obviously, the local authorities were extremely important to us. They are on the ground and they know exactly what is happening. That allowed us to adapt and review as we went along.

In terms of the overall review we have committed to doing, it is important to state that we could only carry it out when the scheme was up and running and we had the experience of it. If we were to review those on an ongoing basis, I can tell the Deputy that businesses would still be waiting for the money. The latter was not our aim.