Sir, The recent work carried out by the Central Statistics Office in regard to Social Welfare payments was not some esoteric: exercise in higher mathematics; it was an elementary sampling exercise of a kind which should, of, course, have been part of the most basic and routine checking system of the Department of, Social Welfare. Why hasn't that department been doing it for years? It must have been, I think, because successive governments just didn't want to know about fraud in the system.
It is some time now since a former governor of the Central Bank drew attention to the relaxed interpretation of the regulations governing the payment of unemployment benefits - and got himself roundly denounced for it. It is obvious now that there has been a relaxed approach to the operation of the whole system.
Governments have shown small appetite for tackling social welfare fraud (or, it must be acknowledged, any fraud where a large party clientele would be affected). The favoured tactics have been denial, denunciation and diversion: denial of the existence of fraud on any significant scale; denunciation of those alleging fraud for their insensitive attack on the most vulnerable sections of the community; and diversion of attention by reference to tax evasion and other fraud by the wealthy. In conclusion, there was generally an assertion that any fraud which might exist in the social welfare system (or the beef industry) was "miniscule" and that stringent control procedures were in operation.
I doubt if any effective act on will be taken, even now. The whole thing has gone so far that I cannot see any party taking the strong, and necessarily intrusive, measures which would offend huge numbers, innocent and guilty alike.
For instance, no serious effort is made to recover money from fathers who have abandoned their families, although there is little risk of offending the innocent in those cases. The sad truth is that successive governments have been afraid to offend the guilty, when there are more than a few of them! - Yours, etc.,
Upper Kilmacud Road,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.