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

I want to stress that I am not talking here about cases involving fraud. As far as I am concerned, people who have defrauded the Department should be pursued to the ends of the earth. I posed this question because I have had a large volume of queries on this recently, as have other Deputies from all sides of the House, who have brought them to my attention. People on social welfare, generally elderly people, are getting letters from the Department telling them that they had an overpayment from ten, 15 or in some cases, 25 years ago. The letters state that the individual owes the Department X amount and essentially say "Please pay up immediately (a cheque will do) or tell us what arrangements you want to make to pay." To give the Minister one example, a constituent of mine was contacted by the Department of Social Protection regarding an alleged overpayment of jobseeker's allowance at different times between 5 January 1987 and 16 May 1989. That is 26 years ago.

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