The report from the Central Statistics Office on fraud among social welfare recipients is surely one of the most damning official documents ever published in this State. The report has not only exposed wrong doing on a grand scale it has exposed a dereliction of duty by successive Ministers for Social Welfare.
Earlier this year, Mr De Rossa stated that the level of abuse was "minuscule". But the CSO survey has exposed a truth which has been consistently denied the abuse of unemployment payments alone is costing at least £250 million a year in public funds. Millions of pounds which might be available for the most needy in our society, for schools, hospitals and other essential public services is being defrauded.
According to the CSO survey, 44 per cent of the live (unemployment) register claimants did not describe themselves as unemployed when questioned. And 28 per cent of the sample surveyed were not living at the addresses given. The honest, compliant taxpayers most of whom have to endure high personal taxation and a grossly inequitable tax system are entitled to be outraged by the revelations. But few will be surprised.
A succession of Labour Force Surveys all indicating a much lower unemployment figure than that recorded by the live register has hinted at widespread welfare fraud. But the evidence anecdotal and otherwise is all around us. Everyone who has been requested to make a cheque payable to cash every employer who has been asked for time off to allow an employee to sign on is only too well aware of the double standards.
Yesterday's package of anti fraud measures is clearly an attempt by an embarrassed Government to show some resolution on the issue. Some aspects of the package, notably the more careful scrutiny of all claims and the new arrangements for transfer of information between FAS and the Department of Social Welfare, might best be described as blinding flashes of the obvious. The wonder is that they have not been implemented before now. A decision to put photographs of all claimants on social services cards is the next logical step. And no spurious objections about this amounting to some breach of civil liberties ought to be entertained.
The real issue is whether this Government and more pertinently, Mr De Rossa has the political will to follow through on these proposals.
The Minister's performance on this issue like that of many of his predecessors in office has been lamentable little attempt has been made to explain how fraud on this scale could have been allowed to persist or to explain why it was consistently underestimated. At times, the Minister has appeared more interested in protecting his natural political constituency than in acknowledging the implications of the CSO report. His raising of hares about unscrupulous employers is no more than a diversion and a transparent one at that.
There is no question here of a witch hunt against the poor or the most needy in our society. At issue is the control systems and the accountability of Mr De Rossa's Department which manages over £4 billion in public funds every year. The CSO survey has starkly exposed the extent of the problem Mr De Rossa's duty now is to put things right.