Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy is aware, I monitor the figures closely. We have changed eligibility criteria and the pool of eligible people twice in the past 12 months. That has allowed us to stay static in the last 12 months, which has been an achievement in itself. There is a constant flow in. The number of starters on CE schemes last month, 594, was high when compared to previous months. In previous months, the number was around the 500 mark. There were 800 in September last year. Obviously, people are also leaving. We are in a static state, which is why we have brought in two new additional measures. The qualified adult measure will broaden the pool by a good few thousand people. Ukrainian refugees are now eligible. The number of these eligible will ramp up in April and May, the months in which the number of people coming to the country peaked. Before we look at further policy changes, we first need to see the impact of this one.

See this speech in context