Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is no agenda in terms of endeavouring to penalise any one sector as opposed to another. I recall the former Labour Party leader, Joan Burton, when she introduced the legislation to empower social protection inspections, referred to "the fight against the small number who scam the system", and said it was "important that we address this; otherwise, confidence in the system among ordinary contributors and claimants who only claim what they are entitled to will be eroded." She was referring to those who leave the country, who are not living here and who do not come back. In the ordinary course of those compliance checks, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection says the vast majority of those who lost their payments are people who were not coming back.

See this speech in context