Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I am not advocating that anyone guilty of social welfare fraud should escape scot free. However, the period the Department of Social and Family Affairs has to pursue cases is too open-ended. Information should be available at a much earlier stage if the systems within the Department are working correctly. Leaving the period so open can lead to a build-up of cases with the Department and create unnecessary work for staff. We have heard about a number of cases of overpayments by the Department recently. I understand the Minister's point about the need for those overpayments to be repaid and that repayments should be made after consultation with the individual concerned. That consultation did not appear to me to be present in a number of recent cases involving overpayments. I would like the Minister to assure me that no individual is put under serious pressure where an overpayment has been made. For example, a pensioner who received an overpayment might have spent the money at Christmas or felt inadvertently that he or she was getting a bonus. Individual circumstances must be taken into consideration when repayments are being made and that should be done very sensitively.