Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I cannot understand what the Minister is saying about fraud. Nobody here objects to robust recovery measures in the case of fraud. The official statistics showed 32% of cases involved fraud, while the remaining 68% were not fraudulent. The Minister seems to be saying those figures are wrong and a lot of people designated as non-fraudulent are actually fraudulent. That is the gist of what she said.

I do not underestimate the value of €92 million, but we are talking about individuals. I note the Minister is not able to produce figures on how social welfare offices operate the new overpayment powers they got in the last piece of legislation. Some of the evidence coming to me suggests they are being used quite harshly. As I said, we are talking about individuals to whom a figure of €92 million, €94 million or whatever means very little.

A deduction of €27 per week from a payment of €188, especially when the overpayment has arisen through no fault of an individual, is very harsh and not fair. If social welfare officers operate the system in that way - some of the anecdotal evidence I have heard is that they are doing so - that is patently not fair, balanced or just.

Like Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, I had very little time to examine this amendment and have no idea why it was not part of the original legislation but was instead foisted on us at the last minute without any opportunity for consultation. In regard to the attachment order, if a person moves from social welfare to employment and is entitled to family income supplement, is it the position that the Department will take that supplemental payment where it is sufficient to cover any overpayment that is adjudged to have been made while the person was reliant on social welfare? It seems somewhat illogical that where a person is in receipt of a departmental payment by way of the family income supplement, the Department would at the same time issue an attachment order against the individual's wages. What is the situation in a case such as that?

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