Mr. John McKeon:

We have done that. The online savings to date are in the order of €2 million. There is a very low level. The claims being done online go straight through with little human interaction and there are €2 million savings in this. The other big saving is the avoidance of multiple identity checks. In recent years, a number of people have come back to us for a second or third claim. In the past they would have had to have their identity checked every time and this was a huge source of frustration. I remember it being raised not at this committee but at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection with regard to why somebody who made a claim for jobseeker's allowance in 2012, who then got a job but came back to make a claim in 2015 had to provide the same identity information again. We do not need to do this any more. This saving amounts to approximately €9 million. These two savings amount to approximately €10 million. We also have the savings in leakage in payments, which I have referenced, of €10 million. This amounts to approximately €20 million. It is a fair and reasonable estimate that the net cost is approximately €37 million. So far, we have saved approximately €20 million. These savings will accelerate.