The Minister for Social & Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, has welcomed an Oireachtas Committee report, which made a number of recommendations in order to minimise Social Welfare fraud.
Read the Oireachtas Committee report here
Among its recommendations is the mandatory inclusion of the father's name on a child's birth certificate in order to assist in the recovery of maintenance payments and the development of an integrated services card, containing biometric information.
Ms Hanafin also said next December's Budget could not leave the Social Welfare budget untouched, but the Government would try to make changes that would cause the least pain.
She said fraud was a very serious issue and that if money was going to the wrong people, she wanted to insure that they get it back and give it to those that are most in need.
