Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

What is needed here is a whole-of-government approach. Dealing with these issues does not sit in any one silo or Department exclusively. I welcome the initiative the Taoiseach is undertaking to pull together the key Departments to devise a coherent and comprehensive response to the working group report and address the issues the Ombudsman has justifiably raised. This has taken too long. The Government is now focused on bringing forward solutions, which will involve a new scheme. In the meantime, I will continue to ensure the existing scheme is administered. We have about 30,000 people benefiting from that scheme at the moment. We need to get the appeals board up and running. In the interests of natural justice, people deserve to have an appeal mechanism in place even though the success rate is very low, as the Deputy knows, because the criteria are so stringent. It is outdated, including the terminology. That is my focus, ensuring we continue to operate the scheme in parallel with the development of a new one, which I expect will now happen quickly.

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