Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Question 203: To ask the Minister for Social Protection her views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding the black economy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [39449/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department which processes in excess of 2 million claims each year and makes payments to over one million people every week. While the vast majority of people are receiving the entitlement due to them, as Minister, I am very conscious of the need to protect public money and I am determined to ensure that abuse of the system is prevented and is dealt with effectively when detected.

To this end, I launched a new Fraud Initiative (2011 – 2013) in September last which aims to put in place a range of actions to combat fraud and abuse of the social welfare system and to ensure there is public confidence and trust in it.

Under the Initiative, there will be a greater focus on inter-agency co-operation at the local level and an emphasis on undertaking joint projects and pooling of local knowledge, many of which focus on the black (or hidden) economy. There are a number of themes and approaches under-pinning the Initiative, including greater inter-agency co-operation among public bodies at national and local level to combat fraud and abuse and a greater presence of social welfare inspectors on the ground. In addition, there will be greater liaison at national and, in particular, at local level with employers, their representative organisations and businesses generally to ensure good information exchange on emerging fraudulent trends in the labour market and to maintain a fair and level playing pitch for all enterprises.

As part of its control activities, the Department has formed alliances with a range of enforcement and compliance agencies, in particular, the Revenue Commissioners. Both organisations are working together with a view to aligning expertise and information across their operations.

On an on-going basis, my Department and Revenue request specific information and data matches from each other for the purposes of combating fraud and abuse. The risk inherent in black or hidden economy has been identified by both organisations as being a key corporate priority to be tackled. A sectoral approach is being taken in this regard with projects and control operations focussing on the following:

· Construction sector;

· Trade suppliers;

· Streetscape Projects – this consists of a visit to all cash businesses in a street, small town or village to check the quality of records and the consistency between declared income and stock levels. How cash is managed is also reviewed;

· Taxi sector – including the use of inter agency checkpoints and data matching;

· White collar sectors which have the potential to engage in cash transactions; and

· Other sectors including markets, casual trading, couriers, clothes recycling, car valeting, security sector, and haulage.

With regard to incidents of suspected fraud, my Department accepts reports of possible fraud and abuse of the social welfare system offered by members of the public in relation to the operation of its schemes. To this end, it has both a dedicated phone number and a facility on the Department's website for this purpose. Members of the public are asked to provide as much detail as possible about the case they are reporting and they can do so anonymously.

Reports can be made as follows:

· By email: www.welfare.ie

· By phone: (01) 704 3000, ask for Central Control Section or (071) 9672648 or Locall: 1890 927999.

· By Post: Central Control Division, DSP, Shannon Lodge, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim.

I would like to thank the Deputy for the information he supplied and I would invite him to supply more specific details of the alleged abuses to enable staff of my Department to investigate the particular cases referred to.