Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply, which is exactly accurate. That is what the supplementary welfare payment is supposed to be. It is supposed to be a short-term interim payment while investigations are taking place. I was previously a Minister of State in that Department, so I am fairly familiar with it. I have never had that experience before either. Somebody obviously felt that the time was ripe to tell the Government backbenchers to so-and-so off with themselves and so on. It is noted, but it is not accepted. I will pursue that to hell and back because when we are dealing with the public, the first contact we have creates an impression. I got two complaints from two genuine people. I have two more as well, but I do not propose to go into them today because I resolved them at the time. Maybe I got different officials dealing with the situation. I do not want to be part and parcel of a continuous complaint and whinge about anything, but I take exception to any situation where the State is in the delivery of services to vulnerable members of the public in particular. I know there are people in this House who in the past have had to stick their hand in their own pocket to address the immediate situation. I have to say there are no such circumstances I am aware of. We should revert to form in the sense that in the case of a disability allowance application the basic payment should be paid in lieu of that on an interim basis. If the person is not entitled to the disability allowance it is ceased, but care should be taken of the fact that the person does not apply for these things for the fun of it. I again thank the Minister of State.

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