Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 October 2016
Public Accounts Committee
2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Department of Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Roll-out of the Public Services Card
Social Insurance Fund 2015
9:00 am
Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:
If something has happened in the past which has given rise to an overpayment, obviously we look to recover the overpayment. In many instances the recovery could be over a long period so that a recovery of funds for something that happened some years ago might be taking place now. We would risk assess clients. We have an investigation process that is based on the risk assessment but the critical point is that if somebody establishes an entitlement at a moment in time he or she has that entitlement.