Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

That is a legitimate reason for taking somebody off benefit. Unfortunately, I have heard, as I did from Senator colleagues this morning, that employers in the construction industry are not able to get people to take up jobs. The same applies to shopkeepers. People have told them they would be better off on the dole. The employers will not give the names of those individuals nor will they report them. I can appreciate that in a small community nobody wants to be the one to give information about somebody, yet the whole country is talking about the black economy. The name of the person who gives such information would be anonymous. We do not need to know the name of the person making the complaint; we just need to know the details of the person concerned and the social welfare office will follow up on that. There has been a huge increase in the reports from members of the public, which have been helpful to us in combating fraud. If there is evidence, as there is from employers, of people being offered a job, albeit a low paid one, and turning it down, that is sufficient grounds to have somebody taken off benefit.