The Government has stopped €94million in payments going to Covid-19 fraudsters.
It comes as part of a major operation to target those falsely claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
And the Department of Social Protection has now put a halt to a staggering 24,000 cases of cash wrongly going to fraudsters.
The claims were discovered after 70,000 cases were examined, with the department saying the false payments were spotted after desk-based assessments, interviews, audits of PRSI records and special investigations.
A number of others came after self-declarations of claimants, the Times reports.
The news comes after gardai in Limerick and Clare carried out searches in connection with a foreign gang suspected to have claimed around €100,000 using stolen PPS numbers.
The cash had been paid to local accounts here, before being transferred to accounts overseas.
Another man in Dublin was found to be claiming 25 separate PUP payments, totalling a whopping €56,000.
