Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 49, between lines 38 and 39, to insert the following:

"(4) The Minister shall publish a report on the implications of introducing a maximum clawback period of four years under this section within six months of the enactment of this Act.".

Section 45 relates to repayment of overpayments of benefit. One understands why this provision would exist and agrees with the principle that if at any time a person receives retirement benefit to which he or she is not entitled, arrangements need to be made for it to be recouped and repaid. There is a clear logic to what I am suggesting here. All I am asking is how a person could do that. The most obvious thing would be an administrative error. On the other side of the house, when we deal with taxation, there is a four-year clawback - the Revenue does not go back more than four years unless it suspects fraud and it can do so in very extreme circumstances. I am suggesting having the same provision here such that the Revenue does not go back more than four years or that the citizen cannot go back more than four years unless there is a suspicion of fraud. It is a bit severe to make provision to go after a person's estate after death as the person might not have been aware that he or she was being overpaid given that it might only come to light some years later. If the Department has made an administrative error for more than four years at some point, it needs to carry the can. I am asking for the same look-back provisions as apply to Revenue.

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