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It seems like the Government has finally had enough where social welfare fraud is concerned, as they are planning to initiate new laws to stop welfare fraudsters from flying into the country in order to claim their benefits.

The Irish Daily Mirror reports that the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton, has said she will push ahead with plans to give social welfare inspectors the names of suspected fraudsters as they return to Ireland via plane or boat in order to collect any benefits on offer to them.

The names will then be matched to people who are claiming welfare to examine if the people in question are actively defrauding the Irish social welfare system.

“There has been a surge in the number of people flying into Ireland to collect their benefits. This has to stop and this is one of the issues the minister is looking at to combat fraud,” said a source.

At present, welfare inspectors do not possess any kind of specific power when it comes to catching fraudsters at airports or ports. However, the Social Welfare Bill, which is due to be published at some stage this week, will seek to change this.

However the new bill is likely to cause uproar from campaigners who believe that it is an invasion of passengers’ privacy when they are trying to travel.

Over the past few months, the Department of Social Protection has called to the homes of suspected fraudsters and interview them. Since these interviews and house calls began, 600 payments have been terminated. This has saved the exchequer €6.33million.

Suspicions about welfare fraud were raised after the volcanic ash cloud closed airports for a period of 12 days. During those 12 days the number of people who signed on fell by more than 3,500 – at this point the Department of Social Protection began to smell a rat.

According to a spokesman for the department, a wide range of fraud control measures are currently being implemented to try and stamp out the abuse of the system. But will it actually work?