Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will just go through a number of points that were made. Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell asked about analysing the recovery of the repayments. They are very significant. For the three years of this Government we have recovered €175 million in overpayments. If people look at the social welfare bill, in 2010 the recovery of overpayments was €34 million; in 2011 it was €51 million; in 2012 it was €53 million; and in 2013, with the changes the Senators agreed to in previous social welfare Bills, the saving was more than €70 million.

I will make one little comparison which might be helpful to people. I know some people were wondering in the context of the budget whether free travel is under threat and the answer is that it is not. Free travel costs approximately €77 million in total. The recovery of the overpayments last year financed the vast bulk of the free travel scheme. Some of the decisions in which I have been involved in social welfare have been difficult but recovering the overpayments in a very humane, careful and considered way is critical to sustaining some very important elements of the social welfare system.

Other Senators, including Senator Barrett, asked about the analysis of how the overpayments occurred. The latest analysis and detail I have relates to 2011, when 42% of cases were suspected fraud. We use the term “suspected” fraud because everyone knows that when people make a claim they are a bit confused and are excessively hopeful that a certain presentation of the case will result in a better outcome. That was in 42% of cases.

The rate for customer third party errors, usually in cases where circumstances have changed but the Department was not been notified, is 37%. Departmental error accounts for 8% while moneys from estates accounts for 13%. Not too long ago, the special investigations unit did a special analysis in which we discovered some people claiming means-tested benefits who had bank deposits of between €250,000 and €500,000. By and large, they would not have qualified for a means-tested benefit. In the event of the death of such a claimant, the overpayments would be recovered from their estate.

The Ballymun pilot project referred to by Senator Marie-Louise O’Donnell has been under way for just one year but the amount of positivity it has generated is encouraging. I have visited it five times to get a good sense of it. It essentially brings together all organisations dealing with young people in a committee chaired by my Department to get a cross-sectoral approach to helping young people make a life-plan. I have talked with quite a few of the young people involved. I encountered one young man with a good degree in law and related matters who did not rate doing CVs. He did not really understand that he had to make a really strong case to get a placement in a solicitors' firm. After working with the initiative, he has found a placement. In other cases, young people wanted to start their own small businesses and qualify in self-employment services such as hairdressing and barbering. Again, many of them had good outcomes. I accept one pilot project does not speak for everything. However, when I visited the project recently with the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, László Andor, the positivity from the 50 young people involved was amazing.

We have to push work experience into schools. Where people spend three or four years in further or higher education, we have to find a way, as they do in Germany and Austria which has a similar population size to ours, of including three to four months’ work experience. Accordingly, when a student applies for a job after qualifying, they can engage with an employer because they have experienced the world of work. We have got great support from employers in this regard. They are critical because we have to change the culture where employers make room for young people. In Germany and Austria, as part of corporate-social responsibility, employers, including public service employers, are expected to be open to giving people work experience. In the current climate, employers say the determining factor is not necessarily academic or educational qualifications but attitude. If someone has never had a work experience, they might not understand the kind of things over and beyond qualifications that employers are trying to get from young people.

In the last year of the previous Government, the number of post office closures was significant.