John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)

I will try to give Deputy Ring straight answers. First, the scheme is open. Second, 4,500 people have availed of it to date. Third, I have applications on hand, received prior to 21 October in respect of approximately 1,800 people. As I said at the time, it is my intention that all these will be dealt with before Christmas. There were 840 pre-registered groups and 20 additional ones, totalling 860. It was a concern of the Department that each group would have an equal opportunity to apply for priority and be dealt with in a timely fashion. If that were not the case, what happened in the past was that groups would apply and six months later their application would be dealt with. We are dealing with these on an ongoing basis in a timely fashion.

There is a review and, as I stated in my response, pending the implementation of the new scheme those applications that are being and have been received will be processed. As I said time and time again, 860 groups were written to specifically and asked to forward priority cases. If they did so before 21 October, those applications were to be processed before Christmas. We are on target to honour that commitment.

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