Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:

I do not have that background to the individual case. In this context, it does not matter whether somebody who applies for jobseeker's allowance has previously been in receipt of jobseeker's benefit. This is part of the rights and responsibilities that now exist and which are very much built into claiming social welfare systems. People are required to disclose their means and give such other information in relation to their circumstances to allow a decision to be made on their eligibility. In this particular case means were not disclosed, so that information was not available to the Department or the inspector who would have assessed the eligibility of the individual.

If the Deputy will forgive me, I will explain the context of what happened in terms of managing to establish this information. A number of years ago we established a high-level group between the Department and the Revenue Commissioners to look at new opportunities for operational co-operation and to see if there were things that either organisation could do to assist in the work of the other. There was some media coverage last year about the Department of Social Protection providing information on pension payments, which enabled the Revenue Commissioners to examine the tax compliance of people in receipt of those payments. Similarly, in 2012, we received new data from the Revenue Commissioners on people who had money on deposit in financial institutions which attracted a payment of interest that certainly indicated that those deposits were substantial. We received that information in respect of people who were in receipt of means-assessed payments from the Department of Social Protection.

Through that matching exercise we were able to focus on, identify and send for investigation cases in which it appeared means had not been disclosed to us. This was one such case.