Seven Days

A glance at the week that was

We now know

Iran has developed "advanced nuclear centrifuges", but analysts suspect president Mahmoud Ahmadinejadwas overstating their progress.

Sleeping better helps prevent memory loss in later life, with disrupted sleep appearing to be associated with the build-up of amyloid plaques, a clear marker of Alzheimer's disease, according to US medical research.

The Stade de France in Paris has no undersoil heating, and we found out in the most frustrating way imaginable (left).

How will we know?

The hotel suite in which Whitney Houstondied last weekend has become the focus of rather macabre rumour. Houston's body was found in room 434 in LA's Beverly Hilton hotel last Saturday, and gossip site TMZ reported that the room was occupied just three days later. Even worse, the room was allegedly booked up for months, with morbid fans apparently eager to witness the now notorious suite. It was, however, untrue, with the Beverly Hilton quickly clarifying that the room had not been reopened, and would remain closed for the foreseeable future.

The numbers

6

The number of awards Adele won at the Grammys

97,000

The number of households registered for the new €100 household charge. The deadline for registration is March 31st.

18,000

The number of Dublin households facing the loss of bin services

$2.7 billion

The amount cereal giant Kellogg is paying Procter and Gamble for the Pringles brand.

22

Proposed percentage decrease in the Greek minimum wage in the package of austerity measures agreed to in exchange for the €130 billion “bailout”.

40

The percentage of Garda stations without access to internetor email

Give me a crash course in . . .  the crackdown on welfare fraud

* Have we become a nation of snitchers?It seems so. Almost 17,000 anonymous tip-offs were made to the authorities in 2011 by people reporting suspected welfare fraud by their neighbours and acquaintances. Back in 2006, that figure was less than 600.

* But I thought Irish people have always loathed informers?They certainly used to, but tolerance of breaches of social welfare payment rules appears to have declined dramatically, as the recession continues to bite. And with more than 10,000 emails alleging cheating dispatched anonymously to Department of Social Protection in 2011, telling tales on your fellow citizens has never been easier.

* And what exactly are they alleging?Some 7,430 of the reports were about people who, the informants claimed, were receiving unemployment benefit while continuing to work. Tip-offs relating to concurrent working while claiming made up the bulk of complaints, while reports relating to alleged breaches of the cohabitation rules for single parents numbered 4,470.

* But are all these reports correct?Absolutely not. Ms Burton has stressed that the vast majority of people in receipt of social welfare payments are entitled to them. Reports can be vexatious or mistaken, as people working part-time can claim benefits in certain circumstances. However, officials have described 33 per cent of reports as "well-founded" and estimated that between one and three per cent of the department's €20 billion budget is claimed fraudulently, arguing that even one per cent of that is a significant amount of money.

* So how much money has the Minister actually saved the exchequer?This is where it gets complicated. The widely-touted €645 million figure turned out to be a projected figure for "control savings", meaning savings on future expenditure that would have been incurred but for the control work undertaken by the department. The portion of the

€645 million that actually relates to fraud cannot be determined. The department also cites a separate figure for “overpayments”, which it actively seeks to recover. That figure was €83.4 million in 2010 and suspected fraud accounts for more than 30 per cent of the total, while “customer third-party error” is responsible for more than 50 per cent. Departmental error accounts for just six per cent. The 2011 figure has to be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General before it can be released.

Does everyone agree with the Minister's approach?No. The director of Social Justice Ireland, Fr Seán Healy, has pointed to a recent Oireachtas study which, he said, found fraud accounted for just 21 per cent of overpayments. He claimed more than three quarters of the savings came from correcting errors made by departmental staff, who he described as feeling under pressure due to increased workload. Ms Burton's Fianna Fáil counterpart, Barry Cowen, has also warned against "turning neighbour against neighbour and stoking resentment about a problem that is not actually as big as the headline figure suggests".

What's the next step?Legislation will be brought forward by the Government to enable officials investigating suspected fraud to present their findings directly to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Mary Minihan

Next week you need to know about . . . the Oscars

These are the last frantic few days of campaigning in the marathon Academy Awards race, with the ballot closing on Tuesday, and then Hollywood has a few days to get the designer glad rags ready and the Botox applied for the ceremony at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre (don’t mention the bankruptcy) on Sunday, February 26th.

Most pundits are agreed that this is far from a vintage year in terms of quality, but at least Billy Crystal, stepping in as a replacement for Eddie Murphy, is back in the tuxedo to remind us of a time when the ceremony was at least recognisable as entertainment in its own right.

Best Picture looks likely to go to the quirky and charming The Artist,a French-made homage to cinema's silent era. Hollywood has an insatiable appetite for self-mythologising, and The Artistcertainly burnishes the movie industry's romantic image of itself. Expect Michel Hazanavicius to take Best Director for making such a delightful postcard to the past.

The acting Oscars are less predictable, though the smart money for moment of the night is on Christopher Plummer's moment of glory – the octogenarian legend is a shoo-in for Best Supporting Actor for Beginners. In the lead roles, the favourites are George Clooney, doing the George Clooney thing better than ever in The Descendants, and either Viola Davis from The Helpor Meryl Streep for her Thatcher role in The Iron Lady. The Help's Octavia Spencer is such a strong favourite that she might as well take her Best Supporting Actress award home already. And for Irish interest, let's cross our fingers for Peter McDonald's Pentecostand Terry George's The Shorein the live-action short category, and Lynn Johnston in the make-up category for her work on Albert Nobbs. Davin O'Dwyer

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* Rankings calculated from last Saturday until yesterday morning