Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman is asking me how much I believe the live register will fall next year, but we have not addressed that yet. We will need information from the Department of Finance and we would, of course, have to agree on the figure with that Department. The live register has been falling by approximately 40,000 per year and unemployment has halved but, as we get down to a smaller level, it is difficult to see it falling as quickly.