Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to praise the heroic work of the Department in achieving what was done to keep us all in funds in such a short period and during such difficult times, cross-departmentally. There was support from Revenue and other sources, but the Department has outdone itself. In the post-Covid environment, the Department will probably be under savage pressure because expectations will be exponentially higher.

On invalidity pensions, 2% were reviewed and 68% of those reviewed had resulted in an overpayment. That is very high. It is an insurance-based scheme and qualification is in regard to contribution conditions. What was the issue in that respect? If people who fraudulently claimed welfare payments are found to have an underlying entitlement to other welfare payments, the overpayment adjustment would take account of that. Will Mr. McKeon give us more detail on why that figure was so high?