John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister's comprehensive reply. The key issue is to prepare the way, and all those methods of advertisement, including the website going live on 28 May, are welcome. I am glad the Minister is using social media as well to convey the message. If all this information is disseminated to the parents and students in advance, there will not be a problem. The Minister referred to a help-line or telephone line. Will applicants who use that line get to speak to somebody or will they be left hanging on? This was the big issue in the medical card area, where people were left hanging on the telephone or had to leave a message but nobody got back to them. The other issue that arose was where an application was not filled out correctly. When further information was sent in, the original application and the new information were not connected. These are the pitfalls that helped create the mayhem in the medical card system for the first six months. Will those pitfalls be avoided in this case?

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