Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

We made an exception last year for jobseekers who are over 62. They now have the option of a different signing regime and of having their moneys paid into a bank account. Otherwise, however, at the time when the numbers of jobseeker applicants began to increase very substantially, in 2008 and 2009, the decision was made that all those payments would be made through the post office system, because greater controls were available to us at that point in time through that system.