1984. Deputy Paula Butterly asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures currently being undertaken by his Department to tackle social welfare fraud; the additional initiatives planned over the coming years to strengthen fraud detection and prevention; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59975/26]

My Department continues to work in an ever-changing environment and is constantly required to meet new challenges and update its processes to remain alert and to respond to new and emerging forms of fraud and non-compliance.

The Department’s Compliance and Anti-fraud Strategy published during 2024 covers the five years from 2024 to 2028. In line with the previous strategy, it comprises four pillars: “Prevent”, “Deter”, “Detect” and “Account”, which will be leveraged to ensure that suspected fraud and non-compliance in our welfare system is kept to a minimum during the lifetime of the Strategy.

The Department is committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible, receive welfare and other payments. Achieving this requires that robust safeguards are in place that secure our payment systems, detect possible fraud and error, and prevent possible fraudulent claiming.

All applicants must provide proof of their identity when making a claim. The applicants must verify their identity through the SAFE registration process. The SAFE registration process establishes and fully authenticates a person’s identity and allows them to access a range of services from my Department and other public services in an easy and safe manner.

A range of verification processes are employed to validate and verify the information provided by an applicant when making a claim. In addition, claims in payment are also subject to review.

Where fraudulent claiming is identified, those who offend are proactively pursued to ensure recovery of any associated overpayments, with the most serious cases brought to the attention of the Courts.

In addition, overpayments are recovered through deductions from schemes in payment or through attachments of earnings.

My Department continues to improve its data matching capabilities with external bodies and agencies to identify inconsistencies in information provided to the Department by persons making or re-establishing an entitlement. Information is only exchanged in line with the appropriate legislative provisions.

In addition, the data analytics team conducts risk assessment of individual records and develops analytic solutions to increase the detection rate of non-compliant claims.

The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) is staffed by experienced, trained and dedicated teams of investigating officers, including officers seconded from An Garda Síochána. SIU officers have wide-ranging powers of investigation and they regularly work, in collaboration with other public bodies and law enforcement agencies in Ireland, Northern Ireland and overseas.

Staff are provided with on-going training, mentoring and quality assurance checks are undertaken to ensure any administrative errors are kept to a minimum. In addition, ongoing IT system enhancements further reduce the scope for error.