Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The report of the Irish Public Bodies value for money steering group was also commissioned by, as I said, the County and City Managers' Association, ETBs, and the OGP. We will come back to that because this insurance issue is definitely on our list. We will note and publish that.

The next correspondence is No. 1802B, from Mr. John O'Connor, the CEO of the Housing Agency, providing information requested by the committee in respect of the breakdown by local authority of the 2,424 properties that have been offered to local authorities but which were considered unsuitable. Detail has been produced on a county-by-county basis.

Within each county, every single offer is listed for every individual town, village or townland where the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, felt it had a property that might be suitable. We will note and publish the correspondence. Some of this information is possibly already in the public arena. It should be available through the local authorities. I suggest members will want to study it in their own right and use it at local level to find detailed explanations for why various local authorities did not take up various offers of housing.

No. 1805 is correspondence received from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, providing information requested by the committee on correspondence received on allegations of unauthorised state aid to Horse Sport Ireland. The Department refutes the allegations which are being investigated by the European Commission and provides details of the Department's position. We will note and publish the correspondence and forward it to the person who wrote to us directly about the matter.

No. 1806 is correspondence received from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, providing information requested by the committee. There is a lot of very interesting information. First, the Department was asked for the gender breakdown and age profile in respect of sick leave taken within it. The details given include age and the number and length of absences. We will note and publish the correspondence. Copies of the reports on the back to education allowance and JobPath are also available. The Department also deals with false self-employment cases. There is a detailed chart showing the savings achieved in that area as a result of employer inspections.

There is a note on various other items, specifically historical debt in cases where there were overpayments. I would like to highlight some of them. The Department states in the report that 156,000 debts are due to the Department from individuals, totalling €475 million. We asked for a breakdown of debts amounting to more than €30,000. There are 3,208 cases where the debts are in excess of €30,000, totalling €178 million. We asked how many of the debtors were in receipt of a payment from the Department, meaning that some of the debt can be recouped by way of a reduced payment on a weekly basis. Where the person concerned was no longer in receipt of a payment, we asked what mechanism the Department had in place.

We asked for details where debts amounted to more than €10,000. There are 11,580 cases where the outstanding balances exceed €10,000 and they add up to €319 million. Some 48% of these are making repayments, which is good. The Department says that 25% of cases are suspended. No recoveries are taking place because the cases are under appeal, there are bankruptcies, the cases concern deceased persons and the Department is dealing with their estates or the Criminal Assets Bureau or other agencies are examining them. The Department states there is a residue of 25% of cases in which it has no specific arrangements in place. This is money that is due to the State and there are very large cases. In more than 11,000 the amount exceeds €10,000 and in half no serious effort is being made to actually collect the money owed. We are asking the Department for a systematic effort to be made. This will have to form part of our periodic report. These are cases where the Department is satisfied that the amount listed is due, but it has not got around to devoting the resources needed to follow up on them. It is as simple as that. We will come back to the issue. As I said, we will note and publish the correspondence.

The next item of correspondence is from the Secretary General of the Department of Finance. A short note was requested by the committee on the procurement competition for the delivery of Government banking services which led to the award of the contract to Danske Bank. In order that members are aware, I note that last summer as a result of an EU competition Danske Bank won the contract to handle and process all social welfare payments and public sector salaries. I propose that we write back to the Department to request an indication of the volume of payments being handled by Danske Bank across each Departments. We would like to get an indication of the scale of payments being handled by Danske Bank. I do not think the Department will have the answer, but I propose that the committee send a brief note to the Oireachtas Library and Research Service. It should be very simple to prepare a report outlining how many of the 28 EU member states use banks from outside their jurisdiction to handle all social welfare payments. I would like to know if it is normal across the European Union. Is Danske Bank doing this in several countries or is Ireland the only country that has chosen to have a system where a bank from outside its jurisdiction is handling all social welfare, pension and salary payments? I was surprised to see it. Perhaps the matter might be put in context and it is a regular feature. I do not know, but I would like to know. I am not suggesting there is anything wrong with it as it did go through a procurement process. As I said, I would like to know what happens in other jurisdictions.