Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I appreciate what he says and agree that the Department has a responsibility to its clients. Is it not doing unnecessary work? This woman felt harassed. There must be something we can do to alleviate that feeling among people. People who claim illness benefit have paid pay related social insurance, PRSI, for their entitlements. This client was intimidated by the visit to the house when she had done nothing wrong. She had not been working so the officer could not have been inspecting that and she had not applied for a means test. What the Minister of State said should have been stated in the letter to explain the visit. I do not want to say the Department is wasting its time because there probably are some people who will benefit from such a visit but it is not explained properly and is intimidating to an ordinary country person drawing her illness benefit and trying to deal with her illness. She was very upset by the whole incident.

Does the Minister of State feel the Department is doing unnecessary work when, as he says, millions of people are applying every week for means-tested payments and the effort should be concentrated on them? In due course, when we reach a stage when all the means-tested applications have been dealt with, the Department might move on to a survey to see if everyone is receiving the right entitlement.