Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Public Accounts Committee
2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter 21 – Expenditure on Welfare and Employment Schemes
Chapter 22 – Welfare Overpayment Debts
Chapter 23 – Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Social Insurance Fund – Annual Accounts 2011
11:05 am
John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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The Department has obviously thought about this because in her opening statement, Ms O'Donoghue mentioned that the maximum payment that can be deducted per week was €2 to €3. That was increased to 15% which translates to a deduction of €28 from a payment of €188, so the Department has thought about this. My guess is that nobody among the public knows this. It might be on the books for less than a year but I do not believe this deterrent is in people's minds. I looked at England where it has been proposed that the deduction be 25%. They are far tougher. How did the figure of 15% come about within the Department? How did it make a decision that it needed to be changed and why did we wait so long for that change to occur?