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:

I acknowledge that. I would encourage the committee members to look at the report from the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. The issue the Chairman is talking about is not an issue for the Department; it is an issue for the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC, and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. It is about anti-victimisation or anti-penalisation provisions, on which there was some commentary. As I said, there was a suggestion that, in fact, many of those issues are proper to the WRC. We would be aware of those issues but our interest is solely in the social insurance classification.