John Paul O'Shea (Cork North-West, Fine Gael)
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425. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will outline his plans to scale up control measures to tackle abuse of social welfare payments, as committed to in the Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27123/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department continues to work in an ever-changing environment and is constantly required to meet new challenges and update its processes to remain alert and to respond to new and emerging forms of fraud and non-compliance.

The Department’s Compliance and Anti-fraud Strategy published during 2024 covers the five years from 2024 to 2028. In line with the previous strategy, it comprises four pillars: “Prevent”, “Deter”, “Detect” and “Account”, which will be leveraged to ensure that suspected fraud and non-compliance in our welfare system is kept to a minimum during the lifetime of the Strategy.

The Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible, receive welfare and other payments. Achieving this requires that robust safeguards are in place that secure our payment systems, detect possible fraud and error, and prevent possible fraudulent claiming.

All applicants must provide proof of their identity when making a claim. The applicants must verify their identity through the SAFE registration process. The SAFE registration process establishes and fully authenticates a person’s identity and allows them to access a range of services from my Department and other public services in an easy and safe manner.

A range of verification processes are employed to validate and verify the information provided by an applicant when making a claim. In addition, claims in payment are also subject to review.

Where we find fraudulent claiming, we vigorously pursue those who offend to ensure the funds are returned and that the most serious cases are brought to the attention of the Courts.

In addition, we will pursue recovery of overpayments through deductions from schemes in payment or through attachments of earnings.

My Department continues to improve its data matching capabilities with external bodies and agencies to identify inconsistencies in information provided to the Department by persons making or re-establishing an entitlement. Information is only exchanged in line with the appropriate legislative provisions.

In addition, our data analytics team will continue the risk assessment of individual records and developing analytic solutions to increase the detection rate of non-compliant claims.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is staffed by experienced, trained and dedicated teams of investigating officers, including officers seconded from An Garda Síochána. SIU officers have wide-ranging powers of investigation and will continue to work during 2025, in collaboration with other public bodies and law enforcement agencies in Ireland, Northern Ireland and overseas.

Staff are provided with on-going training, mentoring and quality assurance checks are undertaken to ensure any administrative errors are kept to a minimum. In addition, ongoing IT system enhancements further reduce the scope for error.

I hope this provides clarity for the Deputy about the range and strength of control measures in place in my Department in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government.