Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is very clear. The Minister will say that some of those who will be affected by this might have an entitlement to benefit. That might be the case. Others might not have such an entitlement, however. This section will come into effect on 3 May next. According to the briefing note, from which the Minister has read on two occasions:

From this date, [3 May 2012] new customers will be subject to the new age qualification criteria (of the youngest child) - i.e. the OFP will not be payable where the youngest child is age 12 or over in 2012 [on 3 May], age 10 or over in January 2013 [which is only seven months away] and age 7 or over in January 2014.

That is coming into effect next Thursday. The Minister should not try to face us down by saying nothing will happen next Thursday. If nothing is happening next Thursday, what does the document she has read from on two occasions today mean? What is the purpose of the provision in section 4 of the Bill that "this section comes into operation on 3 May 2012"? This will come into operation next Thursday. The Minister should not try to slide out of what she is doing here today by telling us it will not. It will come into operation on that date. It is as simple as that. The Minister might find a few particular clauses that will help a few people, such as transitional measures, previous items of legislation or an entitlement based on PRSI contributions. Claimants will be affected by this from next Thursday. Even more of them will be affected by it from 1 January next, which is seven months away. It is inevitable that as the relevant age for everybody under this scheme is reduced to seven over a few years, the number of people claiming will have to decrease by almost half, if not by more than half. The Minister has suggested that no cost saving will arise from that, but I suggest that the cost will decrease by half, from €1 billion to €500 million. This cost saving measure on the part of the Government is an attack on the people that the Minister has been professing to be most concerned about over the last two days.

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