Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I apologise, the scheme was closed off with effect from 2 January 1997. No new applications for the scheme were accepted after that date. Some people were stranded within the old scheme because they fell between the two earnings deadlines. This has been brought to my attention and in the past couple of hours my officials and I sat down to discuss this issue which needs to be resolved. We are considering the options for doing so. While it involves only a couple of hundred people, it can grow to involve thousands. The latter would make it a larger issue. Hopefully, we can deal with it now.

I am examining closely how to resolve this during the process of preparing Estimates, budgets and the subsequent social welfare and pensions legislation. Deputy Seán Ryan made some specific suggestions about how to approach the problem but if he knows of a more specific way in which to deal with it, I am of a mind to act because it does not involve many people.

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