Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The officials understand my point. There was a gap of €56 million in 2013, when overpayments of €127 million were made and overpayments of €71 million were recovered. Last year, the Department overpaid €110 million and recovered €81 million. The gap has reduced considerably. Progress is being made. I am not here to knock it; progress is being made. Overpayments are not increasing and the recovery of previous overpayments is improving. That is to be recommended.

We referred in our latest periodic report to the writing off of small amounts of less than €100. According to a chart on page 25, some €501 million of outstanding debt - presumably from overpayments - was due to the Department at the end of last year. More than 30% of that is pre-2010 debt and is, therefore, more than eight years old, and another 36% of it is debt that was accumulated between 2010 and 2014. The majority of this debt is historic. What are the chances of the Department collecting that historic debt, especially the pre-2010 debt? Will these figures sit on the chart year after year? Is the Department making much progress on the old stuff?