It became apparent this morning that the huge delays in maternity benefit payments did not come as a complete shock to the Taoiseach, who was the Minister for Social Protection at the time. In fact, he had been made aware of the delays a full three months in advance. One cannot ignore the fact that this issue was brought to public attention in May, when the then Minister was immersed in a leadership bid. Having 1,300 women on maternity leave without any payment and a further 2,850 claims for maternity benefit pending was hugely inconvenient for the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar.

This morning, through a freedom of information request, we learned that staffing levels within the Department had become unsustainable months earlier and that several warnings had been issued. The principal officer with responsibility for maternity benefits had emailed the assistant secretary general in the Department as far back as 14 February to caution that "unless we get an extra staff injection (and I am saying we need six immediately) we will remain in a position where we are paying far too many maternity benefit claims after the commencement of leave date".

Another document, dated March, shows that the office in Buncrana was down a full 20% in terms of staff levels. The documentation also raises questions about the impact the introduction of paternity benefit in September 2016 had on the Department's capacity. What was the Taoiseach's response to all of this? It was to do absolutely nothing. It was not until the delay in maternity benefit payments made the news in May that the Taoiseach eventually apologised to all the women concerned.

It seems that the Taoiseach and his Government simply do not get it. That was the message which was sent out and which is still going out. The Government simply does not get it. These are not just figures. This impacted the lives of new mothers in a very real way. It caused additional pressure at a time when there is no shortage of pressure. What was the Taoiseach's response? It was a shrug of the shoulders, a scripted apology and total and utter cold indifference. That apology has now been made all the emptier because the Taoiseach stood idly by and allowed it to happen. This shows an alarming contempt for all mothers. The Tánaiste's Government is a nasty government.

A question please.

It has no time for all those people who require social support. Why did the Taoiseach sit on his hands and abandon thousands of new mothers?

We are not nasty.

The Taoiseach in his then role as Minister for Social Protection clearly took action because the processing of maternity benefit payments is now up to date and claims from mothers going on maternity leave are processed as they start their leave. The message I want to get out to pregnant women is that those applications are being dealt with immediately and they will have their payment immediately. Approximately 18,750 claimants are in receipt of maternity benefit payment at present.

The Deputy is right in saying the Department has acknowledged delays in processing claims from February to early June, during which period some mothers experienced a delay of up to four weeks. The Department has apologised for those delays. It is a very efficient Department and it dealt with the problems. The delays were temporary and were caused by a combination of staffing and operational difficulties that can arise in a Department from time to time. The Buncrana office, which processes the maternity benefit claims, had a very high staff turnover. The time required to source staff to fill the vacancies and their subsequent training presented issues.

On the operational side, a new IT system was put in place which took a bit of time to become fully operational. The good news is that the applications are being dealt with immediately as they arrive in the office. Further good news is that the processing of paternity benefit claims is up to date. The Department continues to make every effort to ensure people are dealt with in a timely manner. To alleviate any delays, additional staff were assigned to the area and staff are working overtime, including on Saturdays.

Every initiative has been taken by the then Minister and by the Department to ensure that when claims for maternity benefit and paternity benefit are received, they are dealt with immediately. Both are completely up to date at present. Clearly, action was taken to deal with the temporary operational and staffing issues I have described.

The Tánaiste's response clearly shows again that the Government does not get it. It does not have any regard for people who depend on social benefits, and her response clearly shows that.

I concur with the Tánaiste that the staff in the Department are very efficient - efficient in the fact that they highlighted concerns over staff levels a full three months before the Taoiseach responded. He only responded because it hit the headlines. The response to the freedom of information request clearly shows there was a flurry of activity in the Department at the time to try to fix this problem. This only happened because it was in the spotlight and the media were focusing on it. It was an inconvenient time because it came in the middle of the Tánaiste's leader's leadership bid. Only then was action taken in a blind panic. The Taoiseach might have been too focused on his hate campaign against other social welfare recipients to pay attention to the issue affecting thousands of mothers who were entitled to their benefit and were not being paid.

I will again ask the question and maybe the Tánaiste will give an accurate response. Why did the Taoiseach not act a full three months prior to when he actually did? Why did he sit on hands and allow these payments go unpaid?

The Government has shown total respect for people who are making such claims and always will because we recognise the difficulties claimants have. The Deputy's characterisation is extremely inaccurate and the bottom line is that the issue has been dealt with. The action has been taken. The staff-----

It was only dealt with because it hit the headlines.

It was dealt with.

It has been dealt with because the Department recognised there was an issue and provided the staff resources and training to ensure the people who needed this benefit in a timely way were dealt with.

It was not timely. Three months earlier would have been timely.

The issue has been dealt with. Everyone, including the then Minister and the staff in the Department, recognised that it was an issue that needed to be dealt with. Action has been taken and I ask the Deputy to recognise that.