Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

There is no evidence whatsoever that welfare fraud costs the State €2 billion per year. That figure arose in respect of certain high risk categories that were being investigated and a discrepancy of 10% was found. It is not right to extrapolate from that figure that the total level of fraud in the Department of Social and Family Affairs is 10%.

The level of fraud in most schemes is very low. It is important to point out the vast majority of people entitled to social welfare are those who need it and are obtaining it lawfully. There is ongoing vigilance, because of the need in these difficult economic times, to make sure that those who most require our help obtain it and to ensure that anyone who is defrauding the system is identified and dealt with. That is why so much has been undertaken by the Minister and the Department to ensure fraud is kept to a minimum and eliminated where possible.

There are 620 staff involved in fraud detection, including a special investigation unit. People now collect money in person each week instead of having it sent to them, as was the case in the past. Photo identification is required when collecting payments. Across all schemes, 600,000 claims have been reviewed so far this year, including medical checks and certification to prove continued entitlement to child benefit. Data matching with the Department and with external agencies has been achieved. Inter-agency Border checks have been established. Social welfare officials and Garda national immigration bureau have been put in place. It is only fair to point out that all of that preventative work in terms of avoiding defrauding of the taxpayer and of social welfare recipients is in the interests of genuine social welfare recipients when, at a time of economic difficulty, we have to consider in what way we can maintain living standards vis-À-vis 2008 given the increased cost of living during the course of this year. Obviously these are sensitive areas but I do not accept there is a complacency or that there is not an added determination in the Department of Social and Family Affairs because of the fact that we want to ensure that people who require assistance get it, that anyone who is seeking to cheat on that system is cheating against the taxpayer and those who require those payments. In addition to these initiatives we will do everything possible to ensure fraud is not as prominent a feature of the system as, perhaps, the Deputy suggests.

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