Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No. The way in the which the system works is that people register online, and then they put up further details on the system as they get them, which turns a registration into a formal application. That is how it works. We expect to get 10,000 or so applications; in fact, we will get more than that number under GLAS tranche 2, which is great. There were some concerns when GLAS was originally designed about the numbers who would apply, but now we certainly will not be short of applications. We will try to accommodate up to 40,000 applications between GLAS tranche 1 and tranche 2. I think we will be pretty close to that figure. Obviously, if we exceed that number, we must be sure we can budget for the number of people applying, but I think we have got the numbers about right. We are way ahead of where we said we would be. We said we would probably take in between 25,000 and 30,000 applicants under tranche 1 and up to 35,000 applicants in tranche 2, and now we are saying that we will take up to 40,000 applicants. Therefore, we are way ahead of where we said we would be, which is good, because we want to get to the figure of 50,000 as soon as we can, although obviously that has to be staggered in terms of the budget that is available.

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