Welfare Tip-Offs

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday September 15, 2010 02:34 by Declan Cullen - None

It is with great despair that I read about the 6000 tip - offs to the Dept of Social Protection in last weeks papers. While I gladly welcome any crackdown on fraud, we must be mindful about the double edge side of this particular sword.
People have to remember that these so - called welfare fraud lines can be used by a person with an axe to grind with a person that they don't like or have falling out with in the the form a malicous and false call to the dept just to cause bother to that particular person.

It is with great despair that I read about the 6000 tip - offs to the Dept of Social Protection in last week's papers.
While I gladly welcome any crackdown on fraud, we must be mindful about the double edge side of this particular sword.
People have to remember that these so - called welfare fraud lines can be used by a person with an axe to grind with a person that they don't like or have falling out with in the the form a malicous and false call to the dept just to cause bother to that particular person.
When the department gets a complaint it treats the person as it they are guilty until proven innocent, and can put the claimant through an intimidating interview process with a local inspector were your right to privacy is thrown out of the window and you are left treated like dirt.
With all the current fervour to crack down on the ordinary people of Ireland unlucky to find themselves in the welfare trap we still have one very large elephant in the room. That is the fact that the people that have caused Ireland's financial meltdown are not feeling the heat for what they have done and don't have to worry about their welfare payments being stopped or suspended because they are far above worrying about such things.
I hope sending in my comment will add balance to your discussions today as there probably will be a chorus of internet opinion praising the Department for its crack down, but forgetting that one day that aforementioned sword might be wielded in their direction with no mercy.
Ireland was always called the nation of Saints and Scholars. Unfortunately we seem to have become a nation of informers and curtain twichers who have taken their eye off the ball as regards the sins of the government and their cronies.

Declan Cullen
Dublin