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

On the breakdown on expenditure on jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, these payments account for just over €2.5 billion every year. We estimate that there will be a reduction in the cost of jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit overall of €304 million this year; €341 million is due to the projected decrease in the numbers on the live register. We are projecting that those numbers will fall to an average of 268,000 this year, down from 304,000 last year. There is €30.5 million in the Christmas bonus which is in 2016 but not in 2017. That is an offset by €55 million which is the cost of the rate increases - the €5 increase in jobseeker's. There is €2.4 million to fund the cost of increasing the income disregard for lone parents on jobseeker's transitional payment.