Welfare cheats campaign was a mistake, says official

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s controversial ‘welfare cheats cheat us all’ campaign was a mistake, the new head of the Department of Social Protection has said.

Department secretary general John McKeon made the admission under questioning by TDs, saying “putting the word ‘cheat’ beside the word ‘welfare’ ... in retrospect I believe it was a mistake”.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Commission, Mr McKeon was repeatedly questioned by TDs over the campaign which was instigated by Mr Varadkar in the run-up to the Fine Gael leadership election in June.