Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 37 - Social Protection - Social Insurance Fund 2021
Chapter 10: Regularity of social welfare payments
Chapter 11: The recovery of benefit and assistance payments following compensation awards
Chapter 14: Classification of workers for PRSI purposes

9:30 am

Mr. John McKeon:

No, not all of them. In fact, the amount of debt that we assign to fraud is quite low. I have the figures with me somewhere and I will dig them up for the committee. We attribute most of the debt to customer error. Debts that are written off are cases where we believe there is no prospect of recovering the money. Generally, they are cases where the person is deceased or has left the State. We examine what the value of the debt is and whether we have been able to make contact with the individual. If we cannot make contact with him or her and there is no prospect of recovering the money, it should not be recorded-----