Ms Teresa Leonard:

I thank the Senator for his questions. I cannot tell the Senator the exact number of people who are eligible for an arrears payment but the figure is somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000. He asked about people whose payments are being kept aside. In the case of most of the ones we cannot pay, they lack information, that is, the information available to us does not allow us to consider whether they are entitled to a payment. There is a small number we will do manually because of particular circumstances, and we will act on them as quickly as we can to get them paid. I appreciate that Christmas is coming, and our intention is that the vast majority will be paid on Tuesday next.

I might pass to Rónán Hession while I locate the figure for the cost of the Christmas bonus.