The newly appointed Minister for Social Protection and Employment said she will be following through with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar's mission to clamp down on welfare cheats.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Minister Regina Doherty said "anybody who's claiming money that they shouldn't be claiming that would deny other people who should be claiming the money is obviously going to be a priority".
"I think it's interesting that every single TD yesterday from the left stood up and challenged the Taoiseach over that [welfare fraud] campaign when it's defrauding money from the state," she said.
"There's nearly an acceptance by the left that if it's vulnerable people that are doing it we should turn a blind eye to it."
She added that she was "very excited" the new role, saying her main aim was ensuring that money is made available to those who need it most.
"The Taoiseach said to me that I need to make sure that any budgets that we have in the future are progressive," she said.
Yesterday, Varadkar announced his Cabinet in full, which meet today for the first time.
