Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy said in her remarks, these schemes were closed to new entrants back in 2011 and 2012 on foot of Ombudsman reports but the establishment of new schemes is long overdue, which I accept. A working group reported recently and it was made up of people from: the Department of Finance; the Revenue Commissioners; the Department of Health; the HSE; the Department of Social Protection; and the National Transport Authority. The report was only published in February 2023 and it includes proposals which are being considered by Government Departments, including the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and others. I will pull all of the relevant Departments together in the coming weeks and make sure we get some meaningful progress on this soon.

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