Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

It obviously required a change in policy and law. There was a provision within the law that protected the rate of recovery to the supplementary welfare allowance rate. On foot of the concerns expressed by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we considered what could be done. There was agreement and it was determined that 15% was a reasonable amount for us to look for. We will investigate what the Deputy is saying about the practice in England and Scotland. We have mechanisms for exchanging information on best practice and a conference is planned for September 2013 in Dublin which will involve representatives from a number of different countries and look at control agendas. We will look at deterrence issues there. I would not wish for there to be any confusion in anybody's mind but that we take it very seriously.