Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is absolutely the intention behind the scheme to provide a response and to process and provide the determination on an application for a payment as quickly as possible. That is set out clearly in section 26(1) where it states that it must be done "as soon as practicable", and in particular for people who have perhaps an illness or are of advanced years. We know that would be a significant number of the body of 34,000 people who will be making applications to this scheme. It gives the chief deciding officer the right to prioritise applications from that group.

It is important to remember that there is a very substantial number of people who will be applying to this scheme. We estimate that 34,000 people are eligible to apply. We know in particular when we look at the experience from the birth information and tracing legislation that a very significant number of those applications will come at the start. We have to be upfront with applicants in terms of how quickly we can process applications, in particular in those initial months. We know that not all applications will be the same in terms of complexity. The records of some people will be in the database, and it will be simple to process their applications, but for others, who will not have a record in the database, in that case, as we know, an affidavit will be required, and that is going to take a longer period of time. Every effort will be made, and there is an obligation on the chief deciding office to act as quickly as practicable. In particular at the start, I do not think that we will be able to make the 30-day deadline for every single applicant. It would be wrong to put in law an obligation that we genuinely do not think that we can meet, in particular at the initial stage. For this reason, I am not able to accept the amendment.