101 ‘welfare tourism’ cases see €1.3m saved

An update from the Special Investigations Unit of the Department of Social Protection has revealed that since June last year, 101 ‘welfare tourism’ cases have been detected at airports, resulting in savings of €1.32m.

Another €2.57m was saved following 2,454 reviews of social assistance payments, which also found 236 instances where the recipient was not resident in the country.

The update revealed that drivers who were working and claiming benefits were also targeted for multi-agency vehicle checkpoints. In one case, the driver of a heavy goods vehicle had been claiming the invalidity pension for the previous four years, while another such driver was resident in Clare and claiming benefits, but working for a haulage firm in Meath.