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

Regarding Deputy Curran's question, 2012 does have the conditionality of a 40-year life span but it is because we have the 20 years of caring credits as opposed to what we would have historically had, which was a 30-year working average life span but only ten years of credits. That does not presuppose that this is what 2020 will look like. The public consultation has not been finished. I thank the Deputies who have made submissions to that. The outcome has not been determined. What the Deputy certainly cannot expect to have is 30 years and 20 years caring. If one goes up, the other goes up and if one goes down, the other goes down, which eventually will mean the same result. I would like to be as flexible as I can with regard to caring credits in the new system.

I can categorically give Deputy Brady a commitment that the back payments will be made from 30 March 2018 because €55 million is allocated in the budget this year to make sure the money is there for those people. I cannot give him a commencement date because I do not know how quickly the legislation will pass but, hopefully, it will pass. A new IT platform is also needed. We have a new interface screen on mywelfare.ieto interact with people in a much more friendly and interactive way. The new system will go live in January, I hope, but I cannot tell the Deputy it is going to be the second week in January, just in case.

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