David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 376: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount of overpayments his Department has written off as bad debts for each of the years 2002, 2003 and 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23534/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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My Department operates a policy, under sanction of the Department of Finance, whereby overpayments, in respect of which there has been no recovery activity for three years and there is no immediate prospect of such recovery, are written off. The purpose of this provision, when introduced, was to avoid carrying forward large irrecoverable overpayments in the accounts of this Department.

The amounts written off in each of the three years in question were €7.9 million in 2002, €6.7 million in 2003 and €6.4 million in 2004 — provisional. The fact that a case is written off for accounting purposes does not mean that it cannot be recovered at a later date and if the opportunity subsequently arises to do so, recovery is pursued. Sums recovered post write off for the three years in question are €1.3 million in 2002, €1 million in 2003 and €1.5 million in 2004 — 2004 figures are provisional figures.