Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The majority of people who receive payments or income support from the Department of Social Protection get exactly what they are entitled to - no more and no less. However, in terms of the social contract, any level of overpayment, particularly one which arises from a conscious mis-statement of circumstances or fraud undermines the basic social welfare contract in that people at work who are paying PRSI do not want to see money which could be given to old age pensioners, people out of work or lone parents being misused by people who have no entitlement to it.

In recent times there have been quite a number of prosecutions. We have also introduced facial recognition technology in association with the new personal services cards, more than one million of which have been issued. We have identified a number of cases which have been prosecuted in the courts where people had multiple identities and were claiming multiple social welfare payments at different offices. This is one of the areas where the risk of fraud is greatest.

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