Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Nobody should receive a payment to which he or she is not entitled. People sometimes retain payments to which they have lost entitlement owing to increased income and so on. They are required to notify the Department of such information and sometimes they fail to do so. We recovered in excess of €400 million from our different checks, balances, surveys and control measures to ensure that nobody receives funds to which he or she is not entitled.

When we sent out the lone parent's circulation to 86,000 people, 2,000 came back. We find that information very useful because it allows us to update our database. Every time we do a mass circulation, we learn something by obtaining new addresses, information on income and so on.

I am not aware that there is a problem with electronic funds transfer, but I will take it up with officials in the Department. People increasingly opt for such transfers, including as much as 50% to 60% of new applicants for different schemes. At an overall level, about 30% of applicants avail of electronic funds transfer. We must ensure that controls are in place to check payments. We make 900,000 payments every week and we must keep a tight grip to minimise whatever small proportion of them that goes to those not entitled to them. In the event of fraud, we must take an uncompromising view.

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