Welfare fraudsters form a group which understandably finds it difficult to elicit any sympathy. Every taxpayer and, indeed, genuine welfare recipients for whom there might be more in the pot but for the fraudsters condemn the cheats and rightly so. Business has been particularly hard line in demanding action against welfare cheats, correctly pointing out that paying them or catching them requires more State resources and therefore higher taxes - to say nothing of the fact that welfare cheats are less likely to need to enter the job market and help ease labour shortages.

Ironic then that a quarter of those prosecuted for welfare fraud in 1998 were employers themselves. In absolute terms, this may not sound much as only 160 prosecutions were pursued but the scale of the problems is confirmed by figures which show that of 6,0003 employers checked, 17.5 per cent, or more than 1,000, were breaking the law.

The cost of these transgressions - mostly abuse of PAYE and PRSI - was considerable. The amount saved as a result of the investigations into employers was £30.3 million, or 40 per cent of the total saving from welfare investigations. IBEC, ISME and the SFA would hardly condone these practices but maybe next time, when they are squaring up for a shot at welfare cheats, they might examine the record of their own sectors first.