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

It is a different amount and depends on how long a person stays in a job. The first payment is 13 weeks and after that it is 26 weeks. The companies do not get paid if people only hold down jobs for a few weeks. The companies are paid more depending on how long people remain in jobs. They would be pretty foolish to put people into jobs in which they will not last three months because that would mean that they - the companies - would not be paid.

In terms of the Estimate, subhead A2 refers to agency services and there is a €14 million underspend. As much as €12 million of the €14 million accounts for money that we did not pay for JobPath because we must verify the results before we get them. A customer survey is now under way but I have no updates other than what I said last week. I ask members to bear in mind that if the customer survey results are unfavourable, then the JobPath scheme will be docked. If the companies providing JobPath do not resolve the issues, they could potentially lose their contracts. It will be interesting to see the outcome of the customer survey.

Talks have been initiated with the opticians. They have particular asks. The talks are going well and I am confident that we can get everything over the line.

In terms of the Gateway programme and whether local authorities should increase staff, I am of the view that they should. Most local authorities are now in a better position financially. They are also in a position to vary the property tax and do plenty of other things should they wish to do so. I agree with Deputy Brady that local authorities should take on more staff. I encourage Sinn Féin councillors to-----