Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I introduced legislation in 2012 that allows a deduction of up to 15% of the weekly personal rate payable to a customer who has made an error or committed fraud. That means that if a person's basic rate is €188, up to 15% of that can be deducted. This does not affect payments issuing to the rest of the household or payments like child benefit. We can recover up to 15%, giving a deduction of around €25 per week, depending on individual circumstances. Prior to the introduction of that legislation the Department could only recover €2 per week from claimants. To be perfectly honest, some people who had been involved in fraud were basically giving two fingers to their neighbours who were going out to work and paying their PRSI, to the Department and to Irish society as a whole.

I will forward the detailed figures the Deputy has requested but the situation has improved significantly. I must also point out that we take individual circumstances into account in overpayment cases. Deputy O'Dea has raised a number of such cases with me and has said that the Department has been extremely considerate-----

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