Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is an important inclusion and that is helpful to many people. I welcome the efforts that have been made to help cope with what will effectively be an avalanche of applications, with talk of 80,000 applications. I hope the systems are up to scratch. Should there be delays it is reassuring to know that any application will be backdated to 2 January. That is important to try to give reassurance to people who may otherwise be afraid to turn on the heating or put the extra few lumps of coal on the fire. Even if their applications are not processed rapidly they will be backdated. That is welcome and I thank the Minister for clarifying that here. I ask that as much information as possible would be communicated offline and through mainstream media to the target audience between now and the opening of the scheme because people are keen for news on it. I ask that there are offline facilities to assist people with the application process. It would be important to provide that.

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