More than 800,000 people will receive social welfare Christmas bonuses worth €115.6 million this week.
The extra week's social welfare payment is being made to help people with extra expenses at Christmas. This is the fourth year in a row that the 100 per cent payment has been made.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, said the extra payment would benefit more than 1.2 million people when dependants were taken into account.
She said the bonus was continuing to be paid "despite more straitened recent economic times" because of the Government's commitment to social welfare recipients.
Some €110 million is being paid out to people on social welfare, while €5.6 million will be paid to certain participants of FÁS, VTOS, Job Initiative and CE schemes, and some income maintenance schemes operated by the Department of Health.
