Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 November 2019

Public Accounts Committee

2018 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Employment Affairs and Social Protection
Chapter 12 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 13 - Timeliness of Income Support Claim Processing
Chapter 14 - Customer Service - Development of Income Support Application Forms

9:00 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We both understand that there is a sensitivity to this but there are probably some cases where it is provable that there is no other income but the person just did not spend it as he or she went along. He or she was too frugal and got caught out.

Mr. McKeon spoke about dental benefit and optical benefit in the context of the online applications. That is largely because it is done through the dentist or the opticians, Specsavers or whatever. I can easily see why there is a high percentage of applications for those schemes but he acknowledged that the Department has been behind the curve in getting online. In another situation that we have dealt with, passports, we know that most people in the country have a passport now. There might have been a feeling that people getting payments may not have been the most IT literate group or, if they are older, may not have access to IT. However, they are able to manage passport applications.

The Department needs to take a lead from the other Departments that have moved on, dealing with the same population as Mr. McKeon deals with and have got a massive take up online. The same is true for the Revenue Commissioners, I know many may not be on the Revenue online service but massive numbers are. The other example is car tax. There was a time we had to go in and pay cash at the counter every quarter or six months, now well over 80% of people do it online. Many of them are in receipt of payments from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and are able to manage that some way. I encourage the Department to do that and it will be a major cost saving.

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