Vol. 454 No. 3
67 Mr. Connolly asked the Minister for Social Welfare the cost to his Department of those individuals who sign on in one jurisdiction while working in the other; and the steps, if any, he is taking to deal with this North/South problem. [10619/95]
Over the years there has been ongoing contact, both at ministerial level and official level between the Department of Social Welfare and the Social Security Agency of Northern Ireland. As a result of this contact, co-operation in social security matters between officials and their colleagues in Northern Ireland has been enhanced.
Co-operation in relation to eliminating cross-Border fraud, especially that of working in one jurisdiction while claiming in another, has been particularly good. Meetings at operational level between officials on both sides of the Border are held regularly, at which ongoing cross-Border activity is reviewed. However the Deputy will appreciate that it would not be prudent for me to go into the detail of operational matters.
There are no statistics available that would enable me to quantify the cost of cross-Border fraud but the instances of concurrent working in one jurisdiction and claiming in another have been reduced to a trickle, attributable to the constant co-operation between officials on both sides.
