Yesterday’s Sunday Business Post published figures obtained by Colm Keaveney TD that showed 34,500 people claiming the dole have never worked, never contibuted a cent in PRSI.

Figures above are for basic dole rate for a single person, each claimant would also entitled to a medical card which costs tax payers €1,026 a year, this brings total yearly cost to tax payers of €311.8 million.

To put into context this would pay the salaries of over 10,000 Gardai or over 14,000 Nurses.

If we ignore those under 25 and just look at those between 25 and 65 years of age, we can calculate the total lifetime cost to date (using current welfare figures) to the taxpayer by using the mean age of 45, giving us €4.4 billion.

It is likely many of these people will be claiming many other allowances so true cost is probably 50% higher.