Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last July I suggested that it go online and I welcome that it will. One of the issues the Minister and others have raised, as most Deputies on this side of the House will acknowledge, is that where people make applications and submit supporting documentation that is either not good enough or is needed again, it has delayed their receipt of payments. I acknowledge that. I hope that with the online system, all supporting documentation will have to be uploaded and people will not be able to submit applications until that is done. That is welcome.

It is highly unlikely that everyone on this side of the House who has raised significant issues about accessing CWOs is wrong. I do not think we are. The Minister said she values CWOs. Will she tell us whether she has engaged with them since the rise in additional needs payments? What I and others in opposition are hearing on the ground about accessing them contradicts what the Minister has been saying. Has the Minister engaged with them, given how much she values them? I acknowledge that she does.

See this speech in context