Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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256. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost of the welfare cheats cheat us all campaign since its commencement to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53413/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The full cost of the Department’s 2017 fraud and control awareness campaign came to €163,922 excluding VAT. This includes 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 in the provision of the telephone reporting facility.

As the Deputy will be aware, the purpose of the campaign was threefold – to inform claimants as to the necessity to keep the Department updated regarding their circumstances, to deter potential fraudsters and to assure the general public that the Department takes fraud seriously.

The Department’s preliminary results for 2017 (compiled mid-November 2017) indicate that some 8,200 reviews have been undertaken or are in the course of being undertaken arising from information reported by members of the public. These results include all of the reports received during the campaign. Preliminary indications are that the value of claims stopped or reduced in value will produce control savings of €4.7m.

Finally, the Deputy should note that by the end of October, just over 18,250 reports had been received, an increase of 15% on the same period last year.