The Dail Committee of Public Accounts is to seek an explanation as to why 165,000 people in the State are receiving full unemployment payments when the Quarterly National Household Survey indicates just 106,000 are unemployed.
The committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, suggested yesterday there may be "much more fraud than we realise". He told reporters the committee would call the secretary generals of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to give evidence on the matter in February.
He acknowledged the household survey and live register figures measured two different things. However, this did not explain the large discrepancy. The high unemployed figure was difficult to explain, he said, "given the manifest labour shortages in the economy".