Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would appreciate if the Minister could answer the first question first. I did not ask about the post offices. I asked about the specific reference the Minister made relating to the two reasons. I did not ask about the post office one; I asked about the fraud one. Are there any other circumstances where a social welfare payment or any other payment that is made is included in a press release, which in this case states that one of the two reasons signing on at the post office was brought back related to fraud. It demonises people who are on social welfare payments. One of the two specific reasons given for bringing back signing on in the post office was to increase footfall in post offices, which I have no problem with, but that is not the one I asked. The specific question was around fraud and the use of language in the context of bringing people back into post offices, where it specifically quotes the Minister in relation to those two reasons, one of which is fraud.

Will the Minister provide us with the statistics of the rejection of claims for the essential needs payment? Is that statistic or figure available? Again, there is no appeals system directly to the essential needs department. A rejection has to be appealed to another department.