Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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First, 133,000 have been paid. That is important. Very understandably, we all focus on the people who have not been paid because they are the people who contact us. They are our priority, but 133,000 men and women have received €1,000 tax free. It is a small way of saying, "Thank you for everything you did during Covid." There are a number remaining and we need to pay them quickly. I fully agree. To date, about 86,000 have been paid who are HSE staff and about 40,000 or 41,000 who are in section 38 organisations.

More then 6,000 people have now been paid in nursing homes and section 39 organisations. This number will rise quickly now. Regarding Dublin Fire Brigade, the latest figures, as of 17 November, and presumably this figure has increased by now, 765 staff there have now been paid. Turning to the Defence Forces, we are expecting a number of approximately 1,300 and this money was transferred some time ago to the Department of Defence for it to issue this payment.

The next question quite rightly asked was what about the other people involved. We have issued hundreds of self-assessment packs. These are now being returned. I will ask the officials to give the committee members an update in this regard. The process is, however, working. The HSE has received 523 returns from employers out of the 861 packs issued. There has, therefore, been a good return. There are more people whom we want, of course, paid before Christmas. As quickly as these packs are being returned, payments are being made. The one word of caution for us all, though, in respect of public money is that the advice is that about nine in every ten of the returns being made do have errors in them. It takes a bit of time for the HSE to work through these. Would anyone like to add anything to this?