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APPENDICESMr. Maurice Doyle, Governor, Central Bank of Ireland, DUBLIN. 2. 25 November 1993. Dear Mr. Doyle, I am directed by Mr. Jim Mitchell T.D., Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts to say that at to-day’s meeting of the Committee reference was made to the remarks made by you in your recent address to the University Philosophical Society, Trinity College, about the level of Social Welfare Fraud, particularly in relation to unemployment benefit. As the Committee is concerned with ensuring that proper control is exercised in all areas of public spending, it was decided to invite you to attend an early meeting of the Committee to discuss the points made by you in regard to the collection of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance. Accordingly, I am to ask you to appear before the Committee on Thursday 9 December 1993 if possible. The meeting will take place on Thursday at 11 a.m. in Kildare House, Kildare St. Should you be unavailable on this date the next meeting of the Committee will be on 16 December at the same time. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely,
UNA CONNOLLY Clerk to the Committee.
26 November 1993. Ms. Una Connolly, Clerk to the Committee of Public Accounts, Leinster House, DUBLIN 2. Dear Ms. Connolly, Thank you for your letter of 25 November last inviting me to appear before the Committee. The comments made about social welfare payments in my recent speech comprised approximately fifteen words of a fifteen-page text - despite the impression created by RTE (not, I may add, by the newspapers). The remarks were also based on material which is already published. I would not pretend to have any particular expertise in this area, nor am I responsible for social welfare expenditure. As you are aware, the Department of Social Welfare is the appropriate body and is currently addressing these issues in considerable detail. In the circumstances, I do not consider that any useful purpose would be served by my appearing before the Committee of Public Accounts. I enclose a dozen copies of the speech for circulation to the Committee. If you require more, please contact my Secretary, Ms. Moloney. Yours sincerely,
Maurice F. Doyle, Governor. Mr. Maurice Doyle, Governor, Central Bank of Ireland, DUBLIN. 2. 6 December 1993. Dear Mr. Doyle, I am directed by Mr. Jim Mitchell T.D., Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts, to refer to your letter of 26 November 1993 in which you declined an invitation from the Committee to attend a meeting to discuss the points made by you in a recent speech, regarding the level of Social Welfare fraud, particularly in relation to unemployment payments. The Committee has considered your response and unanimously expressed its dissatisfaction with it. It reserves the right to take further action on this matter. In the meantime, the Committee has decided, under Standing Order 130 of Dáil Éireann, which empowers it “to send for persons, papers and records”, to seek from you copies of the results of studies of the Irish Labour Market undertaken on behalf of the Central Bank and referred to in page seven of your speech. The Committee also requests you to submit a copy of the study of the “black” economy referred to in page eight of your speech and any other documentation which would shed light on the issues you raised in relation to fraudulent claims for unemployment payments. The Committee has asked me to point out that while it firmly respects the independence of the Central Bank, as a Committee of Parliament charged with monitoring the control of public expenditure and, specifically, means of preventing fraud, it would be impossible for it to ignore that part of your speech in which you expressed your views on this matter. Jim Mitchell T.D., Chairman. Accordingly, the Committee believes that the public interest would be served by your co-operation with it in discharging its remit. It asks you to consider afresh your duty to the public. I await hearing from you. Yours sincerely,
UNA CONNOLLY Clerk to the Committee.
14 December 1993 Ms. Una Connolly Clerk to the Committee Committee of Public Accounts Leinster House Dublin 2 Dear Ms. Connolly, Thank you for your letter of 6 December last. I enclose the material you request for the benefit of the Committee. As I indicated in my letter of 26 November last, these sources are already in the public domain but bringing them together in the way you suggest, should, I agree, be of help to the Committee. In the enclosed dossier, section “A” includes the studies of the Irish Labour Market in the Bank while “B” contains the study of the “black” economy and other documentation which shed light on the question of fraudulent claims for unemployment payments. I trust this information will facilitate the work of the Committee. Yours sincerely,
Maurice F. Doyle Governor
7 January, 1994 Dear Ms. Connolly, I refer to your letter of 5 January and enclose the information requested on net migration. I inadvertently forgot that I had offered to provide this information at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on 2 December 1993. Yours sincerely,
Donal Murphy Director Ms. Una Connolly Clerk Committee of Public Accounts Leinster House Dublin 2. Population and Net Migration
Note: Figures for 1987 to 1991 shown in brackets are the preliminary population and net migration estimates which were revised on publication of the 1991 Census of Population Summary Report on 30 April 1993.
Department of Enterprise & Employment Office of the secretary 25 February, 1994 Mr. Jim Mitchell, T.D. Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Leinster House Dublin 2 Re: Department of Labour Appropriation Account 1992 Dear Chairman, I would like to refer to the Committee’s examination of the above account and to let you have the additional comments and information requested. Fit-out of offices for the Health and Safety Authority Shortly after the Authority was established under the 1989 Health and Safety Act its new staff moved from the former Department of Labour offices on Mespil Road to some nearby FAS offices on Baggot Street which were vacant at the time. The Board of the Authority rejected this accommodation as unsuitable because of the generally unacceptable cramped and unsuitable conditions for staff and the fact that a laboratory and special secure area for certain documentation under the EU Regulations was required which could not be provided at the FAS office. 69 of the Authority’s total staff of 88 are accommodated in the headquarters office in Hogan Place. The office accommodation, comprising 17,500 sq. ft., was fitted out based on competitive tendering and to civil service parameters both as regards the allocation of space and the quality of fit-out with advice from the Office of Public Works. In addition to the provision of a laboratory, a library area, a post/machine room, a canteen, two convertible conference rooms and two offices occupied by a voluntary body, the National Irish Safety Organisation (NISO), the office includes 29 individual offices and 11 staff rooms occupied by members of staff, including inspectors. Approximately, 1500 sq. ft. is retained in anticipation of an increase in staff numbers during 1994. The individual offices are allocated to grades which traditionally occupy single offices in civil service employments. The balance of the staff of the Authority are located in its Cork Regional office and local offices in Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Athlone and Drogheda. Interpretation Services The IDA has not targeted nor has it been generally approached by traditional translation companies because (a) these companies are mostly small and serve a local market, (b) the sector does not qualify for the 10% tax rate and (c) the sector is not one of the eleven areas designated for grant aid under the international Services Programme. The main international organisation providing interpreters is the French based AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters). There are two companies in Ireland providing interpreters, DCU Language Services, a DCU campus company, and Kristina Eustace-Werkner, Co. Wicklow, who respectively have 10 and 5 freelance interpreters on their books. The fluency level for interpreters is extremely high, especially for simultaneous translation for conferences, so that the Irish companies have to “import” interpreters for some conferences where languages rarely used in Ireland such as Arabic, Japanese or Portuguese are required. FAS Schemes European Social Fund (ESF) aid in respect of 1992 of £23. 1m was made available in respect of the Employment Subsidy Scheme (ESS) and the Job Training Scheme (JTS) prior to their introduction early that year. It was intended that this amount, together with exchequer funding of £4.230m in respect of the ESS (the JTS is co-financed by employers) would provide 15,000 places on the ESS and 10,000 places on the JTS that year. It was, however, also acknowledged that these targets were very ambitious. Employment Subsidy Scheme (ESS) The ESS provided a subsidy payable in stages over a period of 78 weeks of £54 per week per additional recruit hired on a full time basis who represented an increase in the employer’s workforce. Prospective recruits had to have been on the Live Register for at least eight weeks immediately prior to recruitment. As agreed with the EU commission, the scheme continued to operate for a period of one year and applications to participate thereon ceased to be accepted in February, 1993. Although the scheme was extensively promoted, only 8,500 persons were recruited, some 6,500 below the initial target of 15,000. It is considered that the prevailing economic climate as well as the reluctance of employers to recruit from the Live Register were the main factors which led to the shortfall. ESF aid of £12.7m was originally allocated to the ESS in 1992, of which £5.042m was spent on the scheme that year. The balance (£7.658m) was carried forward to 1993 in order to meet the commitments that year arising from recruitment in 1992 (they arose because of the payment structure associated with the ESS, i.e. under the terms of the scheme payment was made to employers after 13, 34 and 78 weeks) as well as the additional recruitment which took place in 1993. In addition, £3.1m of the underspend in ESF aid on the Job Training Scheme in 1992 was transferred to the ESS in 1993. Job Training Scheme (JTS) The JTS, which continues to operate, provides structured and certified training for the unemployed and aims to increase the training capacity of Irish companies and to improve skill levels in the industry/services sector. It provides a work based training programme operated by employers in conjunction with FAS of between 13 and 52 weeks depending on the required extent of the training being undertaken. Recruits are paid at least the equivalent to the training allowances to which they would be entitled on mainline FAS training programmes with 75% of the allowance being funded by the EC and 25% by the employer who is free to “top up” the allowance further if desired. 1,920 persons were recruited under the scheme by mid January, 1994, some 8,080 below the initial target of 10,000. Again, the prevailing economic climate is considered to be the main factor which led to the shortfall in take-up. In addition to the extensive promotion of the scheme which was undertaken, the initial eligibility conditions were relaxed considerably in an effort to increase take-up under the scheme, as follows:- -the minimum eligible training period was reduced from 26 weeks to 13 weeks; -the live register requirement was abolished; -both on and off the job training became eligible; -it was specified that companies were free to “top-up” training allowances; -employers could provide details of their proposed training programmes using their own format as distinct from the earlier format which had been stipulated by FAS. ESF aid of £10.4m was allocated to the JTS in 1992 of which only £0.242m was spent that year, leaving a balance of £10.158m for expenditure on other measures. £1.558m was carried forward to the JTS in 1993. Social Employment Scheme (SES) The SES has been operated on a voluntary basis but persons on the Live Register who fail to take up a suitable opportunity are notified to the Department of Social Welfare by FAS. I have been advised by the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare that those who do not take up an SES offer would, in the normal course, have genuine reasons for doing so. However, while refusal to take up such an offer would not, of itself, disqualify an unemployed person from receipt of an unemployment payment, continuous refusal to do so on the part of an unemployed person could result in their entitlement being reviewed having regard to the condition requiring claimants to be available for work. Deputy McCormack wrote separately to me on this issue in relation to a project in Roundstone, Co Galway on the basis that the sponsor was unable to recruit participants for the project. However, I understand that the project has in fact been operating since the end of November, 1993 with 9 participants. The Social Employment Scheme, the Community Employment Development Programme and Teamwork will be replaced next month by a new programme to be known as Community Employment. The programme will be operated in such a way as to maximise its impact on the Live Register. Yours sincerely,
Kevin Bonner Secretary |
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