Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Senators for their comments. The issue of repaying this money has attracted much attention for over 12 months. We are happy with the broad support we received from Senators and Deputies as we tried to bring the legislation through both Houses. I thank them for their assistance in that regard and the contributions they made.

I thank the officials in the Department of Health and Children for their hard work. Much of the work involved in drawing up the legislation and much of the consultation that had to take place before the legislation was drawn up goes on behind the scenes and people are not aware of the effort that goes into it but I thank them most sincerely for the hard work they have done.

The Government made a promise, following the Supreme Court decision, that we would repay the money and it was a question of trying to work out the best system to use. The main priority was that, apart from giving the commitment to repay the money plus interest, we would try to introduce a system that was a simple as possible and that people would feel happy making their application. It was clear that the whole application process should be straightforward and we would have as little red tape as possible. We set up a helpline which people could contact to put in their applications and register. We also had the ex gratia payments. We have many of the details on it, therefore, and we are anxious that the moneys be paid out as quickly as possible. We made a promise following the decision of the Supreme Court. I am delighted we are honouring that promise. The legislation has not gone through as quickly as we had hoped, but a number of issues had to be dealt with and it was important that we put in the appropriate safeguards to protect those who might not have the functional capacity to manage their financial affairs. I am quite happy that those safeguards are contained in the legislation. As the Bill is now passed, the legislative hurdle has been cleared. It is now a matter for the processing of the applications to commence. I hope the repayments will be made in the near future. I thank everyone for their assistance in making it all possible.