Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 9 December 2021
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Chapter 9 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 10 - Management of Social Welfare Appeals
Chapter 11 - Controls Over the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment
9:30 am
Mr. John McKeon:
That is the approach that we would take. We would raise and pursue it. The circumstances of each case would determine how fast we would pursue it. I do not think this will arise in a self-employment status case but, for example, if an employer avails of a redundancy and insolvency scheme because of an inability to pay redundancy, we will raise a debt for the employer, but we are cautious about the speed with which we pursue that debt. If an employer is letting go ten people out of 20 and cannot afford to pay the redundancy debt, we will raise the debt, but pursuing the debt means it will have to lay off the second ten people, which is not in anyone's interests. We take those considerations into account.