Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The recent increases in ESB charges have resulted in more constituents attending my clinics than ever before. The company calculated its latest bills to include an extra ten days in the last month which created many problems for people on social welfare benefits.

I became aware of a case recently of an individual who began a job in the Department of Education and Science. There are 12 grades for the position and although the individual was to start at grade one, payment was at grade 12. After the individual corrected this, the Department demanded the €16,000 overpayment be paid back.

When the nursing home charges were deemed illegal, the Government claimed it did not matter what it owed as it was only prepared to pay back €2,000 to those affected. What if these social welfare recipients informed the Department that it had made the mistake and they could only pay back 50% of the overpayments? They did not get that opportunity because the Department broke its regulations on the collection and payment of moneys back to the Department.

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