Ms Sinead Ryan:

Throughout the duration of the scheme, three assessments were carried out in line with the legislative requirement, the first one being in January 2023, and on foot of that a number of amendments were made in the Finance (No. 2) Act 2023 to broaden the scope of the scheme. After those changes were made, in order to qualify, instead of seeing a 50% increase in their average unit price, this was reduced to 30% for businesses and that was the benchmark after that point to get into the scheme. It was backdated to the beginning of the scheme. There were changes made to the scheme mid-process. We were confined to a certain extent also by the temporary crisis framework but every endeavour was made by reducing the entry levels, increasing the amount of payment, increasing the monthly caps and extending the scheme on a number of occasions so that businesses could be included. There were a number of assessments done on the scheme which I have provided to the committee and on which I am happy to comment. We were conscious of that throughout the process.