Social welfare fraud amounting to nearly £200 million was detected by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs last year.
The Department's investigators made savings of £192 million, up 9 per cent on 1998, the Minister, Mr Ahern, announced.
Six people were sent to jail for social welfare fraud last year. Another nine had prison sentences
suspended. Fines were imposed on 72 people, nine were sentenced to do community service, 29 got the benefit of the Probation Act and 19 cases were dismissed or struck out.
In all, the cases of 144 people were completed in the courts. Some 338 cases were referred to the Chief State Solicitor's Office by the Department. Many of these have still to go to court.
The main savings from antifraud measures related to unemployment payments (£83 million) followed by illness payments (£35 million) and one-parent family payments (£35 million).
More than £11 million in PAYE and PRSI arrears was recovered from employers. A total of 7,261 employers were visited by investigators. Almost 445,000 reviews were carried out by Department investigators across all schemes. Of these, 158,000 were on illness schemes, 97,000 on unemployment payments and 38,000 on one-parent family and pension schemes.
"The huge savings generated this year and the increase in prosecutions show that the net is tightening on those who are still determined to milk the system," Mr Ahern said.