Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Given the scale of operations the Department deals with, abuse of position does not take place on a large scale. I understand that the number of officials involved in accessing details of the person on file was 74, not 106. I did not say it was a less important matter, I meant it in comparison to giving somebody information for criminal activity, which was the case highlighted by the Deputy. That was the context in which I made those remarks.

There are improvements, ongoing training and awareness in the system. Every customer has a particular code and only that person can access that information. The system is under constant review, however, given the detailed range of welfare payments, which covers over 50 separate schemes. The system deals with 1.9 million applications, 6.5 million telephone calls and 68 million payments. In addition, 360,000 assignments have been conducted by the investigators and therefore there is a constant review of what is happening.

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