Social & Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin has moved to quell concern about her department's finances after a senior official told the Public Accounts Committee that the Social Insurance Fund - which finances benefit payments - may run out.
Ms Hanafin said this afternoon that the fund had run deficits for many years and it was only in recent times that it had recorded a surplus.
Given the jobless figures, it was likely that the Fund would be in the red by the middle of next year and the Government would have to make up that gap, she said.
Earlier, the secretary general of the department, Bernadette Lacey, told the PAC that the fund may need an Exchequer subvention or a change in how it raised income.
She said it had been anticipated that the fund would 'run out' as she put it in 2016, but that it now seemed the current fund of €3.4 billion would run out this year.
The PAC also heard that €20m is being sent to support children living abroad in child benefit payments. Ms Lacey said the department was supporting 10,000 children abroad and this would continue until the child is 18, provided one parent was living and working in Ireland.
