A man who stole more than €4,000 from the State when he claimed his brother’s dole is now putting by €10 a week to pay back the money.
Robert Donoghue claimed the money under his brother Thomas’s name while he was in prison and used it to give him cash and to buy him clothes.
Currently €5 per week is being deducted from his own social welfare payment of €100 per week and his solicitor Patricia Cronin said that if he is successful in getting rent supplement he’ll have more money to put aside to clear the debt.
At the moment the best he can do is put aside an extra €10 per week, she said.
Judge David Anderson observed that the prospect of rent allowance was mentioned in September when Donoghue was previously before the court.
He adjourned the case to March to assess his progress, noting that without the allowance, progress will be slow.
