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

The Deputy's definition of "unmitigated disaster" and the reality of the incredibly hard-working people providing the illness benefit service in my Department are poles apart. I have told the Deputy that we are taking in more than 50,000 certificates every week. If even 1% of those people have a difficulty, the Deputy will focus his attention there, rather than on the 99% success rate on which most people would focus. I have told the Deputy that the system is being operated by humans, including those applying, GPs submitting certificates on their behalf and the staff receiving the applications, and that there will be mistakes. There will be times that a medical certificate which was supposed to arrive on a Monday does not come in until the Wednesday, which will mean a split payment the following week. The system is a new one. Either the Deputy has misunderstood me or I have misinformed the House, but no one is moving to a new system. The illness system is for the illness benefit payment scheme. While other schemes might be moving towards our new IT platform, that is just a matter of moving from one server to another. It does not affect the system's design or operation.

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