Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 19, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:"(2) The powers conferred on the Minister by sections 13, 14 and 15 shall not be utilised until after the Department of Social Protection make all reasonable efforts to recover these payments through installed repayments.".

The Bill contains provisions with regard to where the Department of Social Protection or any other Department gets into a situation where it owes somebody money, say, a lump sum. I am not talking about people who are guilty or fraud but a person who, on the other hand, might owe money to the Department because of a genuine error on their part or on the part of Department, and sometimes if a person becomes entitled to a lump sum there might be a pressing need. We are talking about people by and large who are living on social welfare. There might be a pressing need for a lump sum outlay on, say, an essential item of household furniture or due to some illness. I am not objecting to the idea that if one owes the Department money orvice versa, that one payment can be offset against the other, but each individual situation should be considered and the priority should be to be to get back money somebody owes the Department by way of instalments. The Department can now seek up to 15% of the principal payment per week. We had a briefing from some of the Minister's officials a week or two ago and I understand that this will be the practice - that offsetting a statutory lump sum against a lump sum owed will be exceptional. If that is the case, that should be written into the legislation.