Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

The Minister, Deputy Mary Hanafin, was quite clear this morning on "Morning Ireland" that the Department is looking at a 10% to 15% fraud rate in some high risk categories of social welfare. In other categories, such as pensions and fuel allowance to pensioners, there is not that level of fraud. The "Prime Time Investigates" programme was excellent and we applaud it, but there is already huge investigation of fraud. There have been huge savings of up to €500 million so far this year through the Department and the Minister improving investigation. Most importantly, the headline figure put forward by "Prime Time Investigates" was extrapolated incorrectly. It is incorrect to suggest that €2 billion can be saved.