Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I regret if hardship was caused to anybody as my intention is to ensure the opposite. What occurred was not an overpayment but an advance of entitlements. To put the issue in context, of more than 1 million recipients of a weekly payment from the Department, 47,000 who have bank accounts were paid in advance for an additional week. Given that the Christmas bonus had been paid several weeks previously, they could not have believed it was a Christmas bonus.

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