The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform says the government is still examining whether or not to use private debt collection agencies to collect money owed to the State.

Brendan Howlin says the government may create a centralised service to collect debts or it may use private agencies.

The Irish Independent says the private debt collectors could be used to chase down unpaid hospital bills, court fines and social welfare fraudsters.

'Benefits of private agencies'

The paper claims the government is hiring consultants to examine how much it costs the public service to try to recover unpaid debts.

And it says for the first time the government is going to investigate the benefit of handing over the task completely to private debt-collection agencies.

It adds that it is going to hire consultants to investigate whether private debt collectors would be more efficient than the public servants currently tasked with recovering the money. It claims the bodies being examined include the Department of Social Protection, the Department of the Environment, the Revenue, the Courts Service and the HSE.

But Minister Brendan Howlin says no decision has been made yet.