Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 18 January 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Appropriation Accounts 2022
Vote 37 - Social Protection
Social Insurance Fund 2022
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2022
Chapter 13 - Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Chapter 14 - Ex gratia Payments of €1.4 million to Social Welfare Branch Managers
Chapter 15 - Raising Social Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 16 - Recovery of Welfare Overpayments
Chapter 17 - Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund
9:30 am
Mr. John McKeon:
I think the decision to reduce the payment makes sense where somebody is in serviced accommodation. There is an inequity where if you were an Irish lone parent or jobseeker, you got €220 per week and you had to provide for your food, laundry, heating and lighting while somebody else was getting his or her food, laundry, heating and lighting so that inequity needed to be dealt with but I do not think it is necessarily driven by "let's stop them coming".