Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It would be great if the Deputy would let me speak. He has a terrible habit of interrupting. If he asks me a question, I will give him an answer. If he wants to come back in, that is fine. The scheme opens in July. A total of 140,000 families were automatically included in July. They did not even have to make an application because we know exactly who the people we support in the main are. They represented 273,000 individual children who were supported automatically by the State. The scheme does not close until the end of September and this is the same every year. The fact that people are still making applications on 1 September is no surprise because up until the end of September, we were receiving 500 new applications every day. People make their applications at different times for different reasons. It is not for us to prescribe and close the scheme in August to make sure all payments are made by 1 September. People manage their money in different ways but every single person who has made an application and is entitled to the scheme support will get their payment before the close of the scheme at the end of September.

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