Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 December 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Comptroller and Auditor General 2016 Report
Chapter 16: Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 17: Management of Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 18: Department Reviews of welfare Schemes, Social Welfare Appeals Process, Social Insurance Fund

9:00 am

Mr. John McKeon:

It can be local employment services, a community employment scheme, the Department or JobPath. We get a report that somebody is not co-operating in the activation process. For natural justice reasons we have a minimum of two steps before we implement a penalty. We will write to the person and call the person in. Then we will call him or her in again and say, "We have heard this and we want to hear your side of the story". If we determine the person is not co-operating we will tell the person to co-operate. If the person does not co-operate we will call the person in a second time. It is only after the second time that a penalty is applied.