Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will update Dáil Éireann on savings that have been made in the social welfare budget through detection of fraud; if she will provide this information on a district basis and in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45030/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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A key priority for my Department is to ensure that fraudulent activity within the social welfare system is vigorously prevented and combated. Social welfare fraud undermines public confidence in the entire system as well as being unfair to other recipients of social welfare payments and taxpayers.

For 2012, my Department has a target of reviewing 985,000 individual welfare claims and achieving €645 million in control savings. Up to the end of August 2012, some €456 million in estimated control savings has been reported and over 821,000 reviews have been carried out. Control savings are not all recorded on a district basis, therefore I am providing the information on the €456 million in savings by scheme type.

The table gives a breakdown of the control savings recorded up to end Aug 2012.

It is important to point out that control savings are an estimate of the value of the various control activity across the schemes in payment. They do not include any cases of departmental error or any cases where the customer voluntarily told the Department of a change in their means or circumstances, which resulted in an adjustment to their rate of payment. Control savings are not actual monies recovered by the Department but are a good indication of the increase in social welfare expenditure that would occur without these activities taking place. These activities also have a deterrent or knock-on effect, which are not readily quantifiable in monetary terms. Control savings are used as a performance indicator for year-on-year activities.

My Department is very conscious of its obligation to protect public money and is determined to ensure that abuse of the system is prevented and is dealt with effectively when detected.