Mr. John McKeon:

I will start with the questions on the costing, because there is a common interest in that. I will not get the calculator out to do the sums, but I promise I will come back to the Senator through the committee secretariat to show her how the figures are worked out. In short, the cost of provision is a function of the average number, which is a function of the inflow, the outflow, the stock and when things start. For example, Gateway is only starting, whereas schemes such as community employment and Tús are already available and we are incurring costs on them. We already have young people on Tús and community employment; there are only a few people on Gateway. So the costs for the year on Gateway will be considerably less in 2014 than the costs for Tús or CE. It is a timing issue, but we will get to that.

I was asked about the €500 million. That is the cost, and it works out at roughly €10,000 per person. A large part of the cost of these schemes is the underlying welfare payment. Not everybody on these schemes would be in receipt of a welfare payment, but for those in receipt of a welfare payment the welfare payment cost is included, and this comprises a big part of the cost.