Fraud is suspected in overpayments of €43.3 million to social welfare claimants between 1998 and 2000. The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, said that 41,912 overpayments were made in that period but the figures for 2001 were not yet available.

He pointed out that more than 1,000 prosecutions for social welfare fraud have been taken by the Chief State Solicitor's Office since 1998. Mr Ahern said 716 convictions have been secured and a further 471 cases are pending in the courts. He said 600 people from a staff of 4,200 were specifically dedicated to "control activities", including dealing with fraud and in the past number of years department savings had risen to €268 million. Much of that would be paid back by social welfare recipients "on a drip basis".

He pointed out that "people who defraud social welfare are generally people who would not be able to repay large sums of money so they tend to repay the amounts at £5 a week". He told Fine Gael's social and community affairs spokesman, Mr Mr Brian Hayes, that he was unaware of reports that social welfare fraud amounted to €27 million last year. Mr Hayes called for a system of publicly naming those involved in "sponging" from the social welfare system in the same way that the Revenue Commissioners name offenders and local authorities publicly identify those convicted of littering. The Minister said the vast majority of cases went before the courts and were taken by the Chief State Solicitor's office. "The issue of publicising case has not come up before but perhaps we could look at it." All cases involving fraud were looked at with a view to legal proceedings.

"This involves striking a balance between the need to vigorously pursue serious fraud, while at the same time having regard to the individual circumstances of each case."