An Oireachtas committee has heard that fraud accounts for 0.1% of the social welfare budget, but that the debate around it risks "demonising everybody" in receipt of payments.
"The overwhelming of majority of claims are validly made," John McKeon, Secretary General, Department of Social Protection told the Public Accounts Committee.
In ignoring this, he warned that the debate on social welfare fraud "does a huge disservice to the honesty and dignity of the people who benefit from the payments that we make".
Overpayments of around €100m were flagged last year, out of a budget of €20bn.
Between 7% and 9% of them were related to fraud, and generally amounts from between €17m to €20m a year.
The department does encounter "cases of egregious fraud" which is prosecutes, but these can "drive the debate", he said.
The department identified €532m in social welfare payments made from 2014 - 2021 to people who had been awarded a personal injury claim, and which it could potentially recoup, the Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy revealed.
Mr McKeon said that €188m was recovered.
