Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I am interested in the Minister's last point about anonymous reports because it was stated at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Social and Family Affairs - I do not know whether it was the Minister herself or an official who said it - that despite the large number of anonymous reports, when they are actually investigated the percentage that turn out to be correct is quite small. I do not know why the Minister threw that in at the end of her reply.

The Minister had a target of more than €600 million in savings in this area for this year. Will she meet this by the end of the year, bearing in mind that savings were at €256 million up to the beginning of September? How will she make up the difference?

An example from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General was that of welfare officers in County Longford, where the number of checks on whether claimants were genuinely seeking work was reduced by three quarters in the middle of last year, and checks ceased altogether by December of last year. That is an example of one office.

I am amazed by stories of new claimants who have not previously been part of the social welfare system going into social welfare offices, in places where they are definitely not known, and not being asked for any form of identification. Many people have said this to me. They have a card but there is no photograph on the card. What is the Minister's response to this? There is a basic level at which every single member of staff who deals with the public can contribute to preventing fraud, rather than just the specialists.

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