Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

There have been delays. This has caused problems for hoteliers and other people who are providing serviced accommodation and doing so much to support the Government’s effort. That is why we have put a focus on this in terms of getting external resources. I have also been clear within the Department. We have had to move people and to stop other work that we would like to be doing. Such is the importance of this issue that I have directed that be done and that staff be moved. We will continue to facilitate that to make sure we can reduce and eliminate that backlog and make payments in time.

On automation, we will do as much as we can. Very large sums of money are being paid out - €200 million already at the start of this year - so there has to be some oversight from the Committee of Public Accounts and the like. We in the Department in our accountancy role have to satisfy ourselves we are paying for the right thing. There has to be some element of oversight but we are taking all steps possible to truncate the process.

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