OPPOSITION parties have united in challenging the Government and the Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, over dole fraud.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on social welfare, Mr Joe Walsh, yesterday called on the Minister to discuss the issue before the Dail's Select Committee on Social Affairs. And the Progressive Democrats' spokesman on finance, Mr Michael McDowell, outlined a three point strategy to reduce the problem, including the introduction of identity cards.
According to Mr Walsh, persistent calls for a debate on the subject of welfare fraud with the Minister had been rejected. As recently as June, Mr De Rossa had gone so far as to state that the fraud problem was "minuscule". "Of course, the recent CSO figures prove how wrong the Minister has been. It is an inescapable fact that widespread abuse of the social welfare system exists," Mr Walsh said.
It was imperative that the Minister should immediately appear before the relevant Dail Committee. He was "ultimately responsible for this scandal" and had serious questions to answer.
Mr McDowell said the scandal could not be allowed to continue. We now knew there were up to 100,000 people "fiddling the system " and the Government's own Task Force on Long Term Unemployment estimated that each person on the live register cost the State more than £10,000 a year in benefits and income tax foregone he added. "This means that dole fraud is costing us £1 billion per year.
The provision of a national system of identity cards would stop people from "doing the double" - working while drawing the dole.
Mr McDowell also proposed the rationalisation of State services to allow for the amalgamation of the Department of Social Welfare and FAS. He suggested changes in the operation of the unemployment benefit system so that any person refusing a "reasonable offer of a job", or turning down a place on a Government employment scheme, should have their entitlements reduced.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Social Welfare has been urged to ensure that the rights and dignity of unemployed people are fully safeguarded in any measure to clamp down on welfare fraud.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) made their appeal during a meeting with Mr De Rossa yesterday. The group stressed that the current hype over black economy activity in the social welfare system should not be used as a smokescreen to take the focus away from the real issues of soaring long term unemployment, poverty and associated problems.
"Projects and initiatives to assist the vast majority of unemployed people who don't take part in black economy activity should not suffer as a result of leaks," said Mr Richard Green, an INOU national executive member.
The INOL said it was satisfied, with confirmation from the Minister, that the figure of 43 per cent fraud which had been bandied about in the media over the past few days was inaccurate.