Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I offer a warm welcome to Mr. McKeon and all his team for this engagement. I note his opening remarks and the language he used in respect of a shift of attitude. I wonder whether the Taoiseach, when he was Minister for Social Protection, read the part of the mission statement that refers to a shift in terms of people seeing social protection as moving from destitution to an essential component of modern society when he embarked on the infamous Dublin Bus advertising campaign that targeted the most vulnerable in society. Mr. McKeon stated, as has the Taoiseach, how the Department affects so many lives and that no one will go untouched by interaction with the Department from birth to work to old age and death. Given the reach of the Department and the very significant spend and Vote appropriated to it, it is of great interest to the Committee of Public Accounts, no doubt heightened by public attention on campaigns encouraging people to report welfare fraud.

My examination of the figures will not focus on claimants but rather the Department's management of its very significant Vote and the effective control of approximately €8 billion. By its nature, the system is particularly vulnerable to abuse but the levels are of concern, as pointed out in the report.

I will start with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General although Mr. McCarthy is not present this morning. One could not accuse him of being a man who would be for fronting poster campaigns. Mr. Harkness in his opening statement clearly set out that the office has cause for concern in regard to the regularity of social welfare payments. I ask him to succinctly explain in layman's terms how the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General came to that conclusion.