Vol. 488 No. 1
161 Mr. Quinn asked the Minister for Finance when a special committee of the black economy monitoring group last met; the agenda which was discussed; the conclusions, if any, of the meeting brought to the attention of the monitoring group under the central review committee of Partnership 2000; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5625/98]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent meeting of the Black Economy Monitoring Group (BEMG) took place on 15 January 1998 and the group is due to meet again on 5 March 1998. The main topic discussed was the difficulty in filling job vacancies, on which submissions had been received from IBEC/SFA, and the ongoing combating of tax and social welfare fraud.
The main actions agreed by the group at its January meeting were that the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs is to examine the possibility of introducing and publicising a centralised, streamlined system to deal with "third party" information on people known to be signing on for benefit while working; the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs is to examine the technical feasibility of identifying former construction workers on the Live Register who are seeking work; and Revenue is to provide further details on its current investigation into abuse in the construction industry. A sub-committee of the group had been focusing on such abuse.
A progress report on the activities of the group is being included in the report being made to the central review committee of Partnership 2000.
