Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The next set of questions are related to social welfare payments. They relate to job sustainment claims which were found to be invalid. This is to be found in Table 12.10 on page 148 of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General. When providers apply for their fees, there are some controls in validating the data. The report reads, "During the validation process for some 50,000 claims for job sustainment fees submitted in the period July 2015 to March 2018, the Department found a total of 10,000 claims (20%) to be invalid". Table 12.10 gives a breakdown of the reasons the claims were found to be invalid. The report goes on to state that after the initial verification, there is an opportunity for the companies to submit for reverification.