Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am meeting Mr. Kerr on 11 May to get a progress report from him as to where matters are at. I expect sometime in the summer to have this report. I do not want to give a specific date but there is some urgency about bringing this forward. I would hope that by the summer we would have his report and we can then debate the issue in the House.

Deputy Moynihan is correct. The Department of Social Protection recently issued 2,800 letters to recipients of State pensions as part of a communications exercise with people about payment options. Initially it had been envisioned that 7,000 customers would be contacted. The Department of Social Protection has no plans to issue further letters at this stage. The customers were randomly selected and invited to consider receiving their welfare payments directly into an account in a financial institution. The invitation was entirely voluntary. All payment options continue to be fully available to all customers where relevant. No customer with a social welfare entitlement will remain unpaid by virtue of not being able to receive a payment electronically.

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