Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I move amendment No. 14:

In page 16, after line 35, to insert the following:
“Making and termination of appointments
14. The Principal Act is amended—(a) in section 250—

(i) in subsection (1), by inserting the following after “those appointments”:

“and the Minister may at any time terminate an appointment under this subsection whether or not the appointment was for a fixed period”,

(ii) by inserting the following subsections after subsection (1):

“(1A) An appointment as a social welfare inspector shall cease—

(a) if the Minister terminates the appointment,
(b) if it is made for a fixed period, on the expiry of that period, or
(c) if the person ceases to be an officer of the Minister.

(1B) A member of the Garda Síochána seconded by the Minister for a purpose referred to in subsection (1) has conferred on him or her all the powers and duties conferred on a social welfare inspector by this section and may exercise those powers and duties under and in accordance with this Act.
(1C) A member of the Garda Síochána exercising a power or duty of a social welfare inspector shall continue to be under the general direction and control of the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána.
(1D) A member of the Garda Síochána exercising a power or duty of a social welfare inspector shall continue to have conferred on him or her and may exercise the powers and duties of a member of the Garda Síochána for purposes other than the purposes of this Act, as well as for the purposes of this Act.”,

(iii) by inserting the following subsection after subsection (7):

“(7A) A member of the Garda Síochána seconded by the Minister for a purpose referred to in subsection (1) shall be given a certificate of his or her secondment, and on entering any premises or place for the purposes of Parts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 12 and this Part shall, if so requested, produce that certificate.”,

and
(iv) in subsection (16), by deleting “in uniform” in each place where it occurs,
and

(b) in section 299—

(i) in subsection (2), by inserting the following after “such allowance”:

“and the Minister may at any time terminate an appointment under this subsection whether or not the appointment was for a fixed period”,

and
(ii) by inserting the following subsection after subsection (2):

“(3) An appointment as a designated person under subsection (2) shall cease—

(a) if the Minister terminates the appointment,
(b) if it is made for a fixed period, on the expiry of that period, or
(c) where the person is an officer of the Minister, if that person ceases to be an officer of the Minister.”.”.

This provides for members of the Garda Síochána to exercise, where appropriate, the powers and duties of social welfare inspectors. It enables the secondment of gardaí to my Department to assist with fraud investigation work. My Department recently published its new compliance and anti-fraud strategy for 2014 to 2018 and it recognises that we must remain alert to new and emerging forms of social welfare fraud and that our approach must be flexible and dynamic in structure. Gardaí seconded to work in the Department will be provided with powers under the Social Welfare Acts and this will enable them to work directly with inspectors from the Department's special investigation unit. They will perform relevant social welfare investigation functions. It is envisaged that this secondment will be for a period of 12 months. Secondees will undertake the full range of investigative duties in detecting and combating social welfare fraud. They will retain the powers of gardaí throughout secondment and will work closely and collaboratively with other compliance and fraud investigation agencies to ensure social welfare fraud is comprehensively deterred and detected. In serious cases of fraud the gardaí assigned to my Department will be actively engaged in the detection and prosecution of such cases.