Government accused on welfare fraud

The failure to implement legislation allowing the sharing of information between Government departments is facilitating welfare fraud by claimants who live outside the State, Fine Gael has claimed.

The party's spokesman on immigration and integration Denis Naughten accused the Government of 'foot-dragging' in its failure to enact the Immigration, Residency & Protection Bill which provides for the sharing of information with the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Mr Naughten's claim came after it emerged that residency checks carried out on over 3,500 social welfare claimants found that 11 per cent were living outside the State and were flying in once a month to claim their benefit.

The checks were carried after an initial investigation of 776 cases, of which 76 were found to be living outside the State on a permanent basis.

The Government saved €4 million from both investigations which it said were carried out between October 2007 and February 2008.

Mr Naughton said this highlighted the need to "strengthen co-operation between the immigration service and the Department of Social and Family Affairs."

He accused the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern of not giving priority to the issue despite the fact the legislation is waiting for the final approval of the Dáil since last November.

"While the Justice Minister has stated that Protocols are in place for the exchange of information with the Department of Social and Family Affairs, it is clear that this is not working, or we would not have the scale of fraud exposed today."

"Fine Gael has sought to have provisions made in this legislation to compile information on people leaving the State that could facilitate the Department of Social and Family Affairs in addressing fraudulent claims. However, unless the Government prioritises this legislation, it seems that this loophole will continue to be exploited," Mr Naughton said.

"Such information sharing must be a two way process with co-ordination between the Garda National Immigration Bureau and the Department of Social and Family Affairs to ensure these abuses are exposed and that we have a more watertight system of issuing PPS numbers to identify those sought by the Gardaí."

However, Fine Gael's social and family affairs spokeswoman Olwyn Enright said the system was "riddled with loopholes".

"This problem stems from a lack of cohesion between the Department of Social Welfare and other Departments and agencies," she said.

"Millions of people pass through Ireland's ports and airports every year, but there are no social welfare officials at any of these locations. Airport staff do not have ready access to the internet to check up on suspects, nor do they have easy access to a forgery expert.

"Incredibly, the Department has not even engaged with postmasters in the border regions to try to assess with their local knowledge the level of signing on by people resident in Northern Ireland. Department inspectors should be actively calling to post offices and checking that those collecting payments are entitled to them."