Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his gracious comments in response to the announcement made by the Taoiseach yesterday.

All fraud is wrong and illegal and should be subject to the fullest possible enforcement response from the State. All of the issues raised by the Deputy with regard to white-collar crime and corporate fraud are dealt with by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement with the support of An Garda Síochána. As we all know, Revenue pursues tax fraud relentlessly and successfully. Given that the social welfare system involves annual expenditure of almost €20 billion, I suggest that fraud involving forms of income support that are designed to support and protect people on low incomes who are in need at vulnerable points in their lives is particularly worthy of investigation and should be dealt with. That is what the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, is attempting to do. I would have hoped that when the Deputy was acknowledging the Minister's motives in this regard, he would also have acknowledged that the first set of comprehensive increases in social welfare payments since 2007 or 2010, depending on the payments in question, was provided for in budget 2017. Those increases were put in place because all members of the Government recognise the need to support our social welfare system and those who rely on social welfare payments.

I would argue with the Deputy that we need to tackle those who have been involved in defrauding the State from a form of payment that is meant to be used to support those who are vulnerable and need additional income. This must be tackled and more needs to be done on it.

Regarding the figure the Deputy raised, the Department of Social Protection has outlined that the €506 million figure relates to both control and anti-fraud activity. All the material relating to that campaign recognises that. Since this campaign was launched on 1 May of this year, the Department has received more than 1,250 reports of social welfare fraud from members of the public, which represents an increase of more than double the figure for the previous year. Up to May 2016, the figure was 575, and that figure has now more than doubled. That is as a result of the campaign the Department of Social Protection put in place. Its purpose is to stop the abuse of taxpayers' money, which is meant to be used to support those who need it.

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