Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her presentation. The sum of €685 million is enormous. In the news yesterday and today there has been much emphasis, as there was yesterday in the Dáil, on the deficit in the health budget, which is approximately €380 million. This is almost double that amount. A frightening amount of extra money is required at the last moment. I do not blame the Minister personally, but it seems a little strange to shunt it into a committee to be discussed on a day on which we are all very busy and have other commitments. An enormous amount of taxpayers' money is involved. I understood things were to be done differently and did not expect to be at a committee meeting for a relatively short period of time discussing the expenditure of €685 million of taxpayers' money. Obviously, we do not oppose the Supplementary Estimate.

The reason for the overspend on jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit is obviously the live register is higher than anticipated. Will the Minister confirm that the average figure is approximately 12,500? The bigger sum of approximately €418 million is due to the fact that income in the social insurance fund is lower than anticipated. Fewer people have contributed to it because fewer than anticipated are at work. Does the Minister have the figure for the difference between the number at work and the number the Government had anticipated at the start of the year? I note the overspend on jobseeker's allowance is offset to some extent by an underspend on jobseeker's benefit. Will the Minister comment on whether this has anything to do with the change in the rules for the jobseeker's benefit scheme with regard to moving from a six day to a five day period?

Estimated expenditure on the supplementary welfare allowance was just under €160 million, whereas actual expenditure has exceeded €180 million. This applies to the basic supplementary welfare allowance paid to people while they are waiting for their benefits to come through. Does the fund cover exceptional needs items?