Mary Henry (Independent)

I congratulate the Minister of State on bringing the Bill through the House. I have many reservations about it; I am sure we will get many complaints and court cases will arise out of it. This process should be a lesson to us in that the Government and Departments can take money from people quickly and easily but it is very difficult for people to have that money repaid to them.

This is not the only area where this happens. I had an experience in the not too distant past where, having been undertaxed for years, which I was unaware of, I was asked to repay thousands of euro. I was able to pay up but there are people who would not find it quite so easy to pay up. They would have spent what came in to them over the years and then find themselves in a very difficult position. I mentioned it to a woman who told me she had a similar experience and it has taken her 18 months to pay back a much smaller sum before she could get a pension. It is very difficult when money is demanded from one at short notice by a Department. I am not complaining about my case but it would have been nice if they had sent on the pension when they got the cheque from me months ago. These things happen, however, but this has been a very slow procedure for those who had money wrongly taken from them in the past. I hope, as Senator Browne said, that the firm chosen to get involved in the distribution of the money gets into action promptly and these people are repaid the money taken from them illegally as soon as possible. I congratulate the Minister of State and his officials on bringing the Bill through the House.