Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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310. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the rationale behind the recent advertising campaign to report social welfare cheats; and his views on whether this campaign demonises recipients of social welfare, the vast majority of whom are not there by choice. [25903/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department administers over 70 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. In 2016, over 82 million individual payments were made to people across all age groups and to employers. The scale of its operations and expenditure demand that a robust and integrated range of control and anti-fraud measures are in place. Measures to prevent and detect fraud and enhance controls across the Department’s various schemes are set out in the Compliance and Anti-Fraud Strategy which covers the period 2014 – 2018.

The recent fraud campaign was designed to:

- Promote discussion on the topic of social welfare fraud and challenge the perceptions of those who see it as a victimless crime;

- Encourage reporting of suspected/known social welfare fraud;

- Demonstrate that the Government and the Department takes the issue of social welfare fraud very seriously and that it will investigate and prosecute, where this is found to be warranted; and

- Demonstrate that the Department is very conscious of its obligations, as one of the largest spending Departments in the State, and the importance of protecting the integrity of the social welfare system.

The cost of the advertising campaign was €165,988 excluding VAT. It included all design and advertising costs associated with the campaign (print advertising, national and regional radio advertising, outdoor and online/digital advertising). No additional costs arose in staff resources, website development or the provision of the telephone reporting facility.

Since the launch of the campaign on 18 April last, 3,377 reports had been received from members of the public. This compares with 2,034 reports received for the same period in 2016, an increase of over 66%. These reports will be examined over the coming weeks and referred to the relevant scheme areas for appropriate follow-up action where this is warranted.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.