Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

Obviously, there has been a programme of engagement with the troika since October or November of 2010. I think the Department has been engaged in quarterly meetings with the troika. We have serviced those meetings along with our colleagues from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Department of Finance and other Departments. There is a significant engagement by the Department every time the troika comes to visit. Three different areas are generally discussed as part of that. The first area of focus is the financial outlook for social welfare expenditure, which accounts for such a substantial element of Government expenditure. It involves an examination of whether what is actually happening on the ground mirrors what had been estimated or projected to happen. That process relates not only to social welfare expenditure, but also to PRSI income because that is the other side of the coin in terms of social welfare expenditure. The second area of focus tends to relate to activation measures and the commitments that were made in Pathways to Work. That process, which gives rise to a great deal of discussion of what might be possible, involves looking at trends in the live register and some of the issues I mentioned earlier in response to Deputy McDonald, such as the institutional reform that is required to bring the organisations and the services together in order to roll out the Intreo programme.