Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

To give the Senator an idea of the control activity which has taken place this year, at the end of September almost 290,000 reviews and 2,300 employer inspections had been carried out. These measures produced savings of €337 million. The special investigation unit is doing more regular interviews of jobseeker's payments recipients, especially those with high risk ratings. These may be the people to which the Senator refers. Since July, the unit has secured savings of €5.7 million.

We have been targeting child benefit and there is a high risk group there. There are potential savings of €13 million in that area. We take this matter very seriously, to the extent that prosecutions have been taken. By the end of 2007, 361 cases were sent to the Chief State Solicitor's office and 243 cases were finalised. There were 26 cases of personation, which addresses the issue of photographic evidence raised by Senator Norris. By the end of October this year, almost 300 cases had been sent to the courts. We take fraud very seriously in the Department. I do not think there is a need for a report on it, but I will make information available at any time.