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
11:15 am
Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:
The introduction of the Intreo process represents a sea change in the way we deal with customers and in terms of tracking to see where they go and what happens to them. The amount of churn that happens in the normal course of events in the live register is very significant. Approximately 420,000 people are on the live register currently. In 2011, the churn - that is the number of people coming on and off - was approximately 900,000. The average duration on the live register is not long. A very significant proportion of people will move off anyway. I would not necessarily jump to the conclusion that it was because we invited them to an interview.