Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I should have answered Deputy Jan O'Sullivan's question earlier but I ran out of time. The answer is "Yes". We have a new unit. I can only assume that as a regulator in the past the Department, in its inspections or investigations of complaints, sought to right the wrong. If it discovered in the past that an employer had wrongly classified somebody from S to A or to any other classification, it made the employer right the wrong and backdate the payment to rectify it. We are somewhat past that now. As a regulator, we sought to rectify things as opposed to punishing people.

We have to lead by example. To answer Deputy O'Dea's second question, the unit is new. It is a ring-fenced team whose members have had specialised training. They have a specific remit and I hope it will yield results very quickly.

I am sorry that I did not have an answer to Deputy O'Dea's first question earlier. According to my notes, the €530 million the Taoiseach referred to at the time was control savings and only part of that would have been fraud. However, €41 million in fraud is a sizeable amount and, collectively, we must stamp it out.

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