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

Mr. John McKeon:

The way it operates is that we would have received the report and sent to the Attorney General and asked for advice and opinion on whether the findings were legitimate and stood up. We specifically requested that the counsel who was advising on this would look at it, in some ways, from the most maligned perspective possible from our view. We gave it very careful consideration. We did not want to challenge the findings unless we could be absolutely assured that a challenge was not only appropriate but necessary. The Attorney General came back with advice. We did not seek to lead, inform or direct the Attorney General in any way. We left it open to the Attorney General to advise on this.

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