Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

What I said was that people in the Dáil must get real about the problem that fraud represents to the integrity of the social welfare system. There are three measures in this Bill that are aimed at reducing the level of fraud. The current system for recovery of fraud overpayments is slow. This measure will deal with the two examples I gave, including the case of a person claiming jobseeker's allowance and working at the same time. The message must go out from the Department that we want the money back to pay old-age pensioners their pensions and we will get the money back. That is a perfectly reasonable statement to go out from the Department. If a person is getting jobseeker's allowance, it means he or she is available for work; he or she should not already be working on the side. I do not think many people are defrauding the system at the moment. However, to return to the restaurant example, I can tell the Deputy that if one does not have a manager watching the stocks of food and, particularly, the bar, one's profits will walk out the door. I have worked in the restaurant business and I know this. Deputy Wallace might concur with me. Cutting down on fraud is fundamentally important to protecting social welfare payments and the integrity of the system.

See this speech in context