David Cullinane (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As I want to move the debate on, I will not dispute the Chair's ruling. Under this section, our amendments, in agreement with the Minister, sought to reform the social protection system to cut down on fraud and waste. The majority of cases of overpayments are not due to fraud but errors on the part of the Department or the recipient. On Second Stage, the Minister stated the current repayment threshold is ¤2 a week but that she wants to increase this to ¤20. We believe such a threshold is far too high when a recipient could be on only ¤188 a week.

In any event, our amendments sought to have the Minister seek the approval of the social protection committee before introducing these thresholds. If she cannot agree to that, she should at least allow for a debate on the matter in the committee. There have been many debates in this House on poverty and equality-proofing legislation. Sinn Féin's amendments sought to ensure fraud and waste are dealt with it but in a humane and pragmatic way. If we seek too much in weekly repayments from those who might have been overpaid through no mistake of their own, we may push them further into poverty.

These amendments also sought to bring some transparency and accountability to the decision on this matter by allowing the committee to scrutinise the Minister's decision.