Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

From historical experience, the deterrent to fraud is the capacity to investigate it and for the perpetrators of the fraud to be prosecuted. That is the critical issue, whether we are talking about company directors or bankers misbehaving or fraudulent insurance claims. I do not understand why a structure that allows action has not been developed. We hear all the time about cases where a person comes into a restaurant, stages an incident some time later and then makes a claim. As the Minister of State said, nobody has much knowledge of the incident at issue. The only way to deter that is for the fraudsters to be prosecuted, as happens with fraud in other areas of business. I do not know if the Minister of State has addressed that. It is a scandal. Judges openly say it in court and claims are withdrawn. We must bear in mind that the vast majority of people are honest, but they see fraudulent claimants being admonished by judges and then just walking away. We do not know, but it does not appear as though everything ever happens to them.