Ms Sinéad Lucey:

There are two different groups.

Since 22 January and the Supreme Court judgment, we have been recommending that people put in their application now. Even if it is held, they will have asserted their entitlement to the payment at that point. We are recommending that anybody who has a current entitlement should get that backdated from 22 January 2024 onwards. There are people who do not have an entitlement now and were historically removed or excluded from the payment, which raises separate considerations as to how to deal with that cohort.

On the basis of the Supreme Court judgment, that cohort who no longer have a current entitlement are probably not covered by the Supreme Court judgment but that does not prevent the Department from looking at their situation. With a little imagination, there could be a scheme to acknowledge that cohort which, as Deputy Ó Cuív said, is probably relatively small but suffered particular hardship at the time from not being able to apply at all.