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
10:45 am
Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:
Certainly. They are defined in the booklet that the Revenue Commissioners are circulating. If an individual opts for payment through a social welfare payment, Revenue will instruct the Department to make a deduction. Two protections have been put in place in this regard. First, the legislation governing the deduction at source from social welfare payments provides that the net effect of the deduction cannot reduce the level of payment below the level of supplementary welfare allowance.