Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)

I would not like the other Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, to be jealous.

I accept why there is a problem. Allocating 19 extra staff is a good move but the figures have been very high for the past six months and will unfortunately be just as high if not higher for the next six months. Can anything else be done to reduce those waiting times? The Minister has said that a six or seven month wait is not acceptable. It is a massive jump from six weeks and is not good enough. We know that businesses are under great pressure. They cannot get money from banks or from their customers or even from the Department. The small sums, €1,000, €2,000 or €3,000, are a great deal of money. They need that just to pay some of the bills each week. It is very serious. Does the Minister have any statistics on the average sum in rebates owing to companies and if so could she furnish them to me later?

Is it possible, in prioritising those to whom money is owed, to examine the serious cases that are owed a large sum of money because some businesses are under immense pressure to get the money back? They are legally obliged to pay it out and do so as the person leaves the premises. We must work with them on this because it is not acceptable that they must wait six or seven months, which could become eight or nine months in some cases. I will not argue with the Minister because she has given a fair answer, and has admitted it but we must do more to address the problem. The Minister needs another plan A to deal with this for the future.

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