Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Insurance Fraud: Discussion
Mr. John Twomey:
Yes. I refer to the particular issue we are dealing with today. There may be other cases in consideration in respect of which we have information but have not yet completed our assessment, but I would not expect the number to increase to any great extent over what we are talking about here today.
I will go on to the other part of the question. It is important to try to understand the structure we use. We have a national unit that sits at the centre. It deals with the more complex cases. There may be an international element or various strands that involve people throughout the country. In these types of cases, the chief superintendent and his team will direct and lead. They will provide assistance and expertise to a chief superintendent or superintendent at a divisional level in the less complicated cases. The more straightforward ones are investigated by individual detective sergeants or detective gardaí. All of our detective sergeants and detective gardaí are trained on fraud. They get basic training on fraud. Over recent years, in the region of 180 gardaí have got specific training on insurance related fraud. Therefore, we have a tiered response. We have detective gardaí at the basic level. At the next level, the figure is in the region of 180. At the national unit, Detective Chief Superintendent Lordan has in the region of 100 resources available to him. As I said earlier, the business case for increasing the resources has been approved.
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