Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise another example of Government waste. The Minister for Social Protection told Aontú yesterday that there were €100 million in overpayments on the PUP payments in the Covid period. A total of 42,400 PUP overpayments were made during that period of time. Some 1,400 PUP payments were made due to fraud during that time. Due to the cyberattack, we had a specific type of fraud that happened where the identity of HSE and Tusla's employees were stolen, accounts were set up and hundreds of thousands of euro were drawn down in fraud in that regard as well. The PUP payment was obviously an income safety net for people during Covid but it seems tens of thousands of people were allowed to abuse the system with the result that there were €100 million of overpayments. When will the billions of euro of waste under this Government come to an end, what steps will the Taoiseach take to safeguarding such systems in the future and how will he recoup that €100 million for the taxpayer?

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