Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am really concerned with this response written by the Department officials. The people who wrote this were present in Donegal in recent days. They know the urgency of this. Now they are talking about adding other issues to the amendments. This could go on forever.

This is straightforward. It is a simple amendment to the legislation to make sure that the increase in the cap is available to everybody currently participating in the scheme, not just the new entrants. It is a really straightforward matter. It should be urgently done as a stand-alone amendment. It was made clear to the Minister. I do not know why he would have any doubt about this. There are not ten Stages of pre-legislative scrutiny. This is something that everybody, both Opposition and Government, agrees on. If the Government honours what it said it was going to do last year, which is make the increase available to everybody currently going through the scheme, it will fly through the Dáil and the Seanad next week without a problem. It needs to be done urgently. Please, do not now add on other issues that will drag it on for God-knows how long. What is happening to families is cruel. It needs to be sorted out.

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