Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. Since August there have been ongoing problems relating to the payment of illness benefit which have resulted in some of our most vulnerable citizens not getting any payment and others receiving varied payments from week to week. On Tuesday the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty, took to her feet and blamed the problems with payments on the transition to a new system. She said that remedial actions were taken by the Department in recent days and that action was taken on two occasions last week. If that is true, these were the first actions taken to resolve the problem. The Minister needs to clarify why it took her so long to take action despite the problem existing for three months. The Minister also stated she ordered an independent review into the changes to the system and how they were made. Can she confirm this review is under way? When will it be published?

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