Mr. John McKeon:

There is a huge body of research on this worldwide. The OECD has done a study on Ireland and a number of other countries. It does seem, in some ways counterintuitive, but someone who becomes unemployed has to wait nine months for some schemes and 12 months for others. The evidence reveals two issues. One is the potential deadweight cost that arises where someone who would have got a job within the nine-month period was on a scheme or training course, and does not then compete for the job. We are carrying the cost of them on the scheme when they could have been in employment.