Social welfare payments to asylum seekers increase fifteen-fold in 10 years

March 12, 2025

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5 min

Social welfare payments to asylum seekers almost doubled in 2024, while additional needs payments to the same cohort tripled in the same period according to new figures released to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín.

Expenditure on direct allowances to asylum seekers have increased fifteen-fold since 2015, the data showed, with a total of €168.2 million paid in the ten year period.

The Minister for Social Protection said that provisional figures showed that a total of €60.2 million was spent on the Daily Expenses Allowance in 2024 paid to asylum applicants – up from €34.4 million in 2023.

In addition, annual expenditure for Additional Needs Payments to asylum applicants who were in receipt of Daily Expense Allowance rose to €4.6 million in 2024, up from €1.8 million in 2023.

Spending on social protection for migrants seeking asylum has rocketed in the past ten years: the annual expenditure for weekly allowances has climbed from €3.9 million in 2015 to €60.2 million in 2024 – a fifteen-fold increase in that period.

Deputy Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection, Dara Calleary, to provide the total cost for each of the past ten years for the weekly social welfare payment given to international protection applicants, and the total cost of the additional needs payment claimed by international protection applicants for each of the past ten years.

In response, the Minister said his Department administers the Daily Expenses Allowance (previously called the Direct Provision Allowance) on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

Tabular Statement

Table 1- Annual expenditure for Direct Provision Allowance and Daily Expenses Allowance from 2015-2024

Year Expenditure

2015 €3.9 million

2016 €3.8 million

2017 €4.9 million

2018 €6.4 million

2019 €11.2 million

2020 €13.0 million

2021 €11.1 million

2022 €19.3 million

2023 €34.4 million

2024 (Provisional) €60.2 million

Table 2- Annual Expenditure for Additional Needs Payments to International Protection applicants in receipt of Daily Expense Allowance from 2022-2024

Year Expenditure

2022 €1.2 million

2023 €1.8 million

2024 €4.6 million

The Minister said that the allowance is paid to asylum seekers who live in or are on a waiting list to move into accommodation provided by the International Protection Accommodation Services.

The Daily Expenses Allowance was introduced in 2018, as a replacement for the Direct Provision Allowance, he said, adding that the current weekly rates of payment are €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child.

In December 2023 an increased rate of €113.80 per week for an adult was introduced where a person is unaccommodated and is on a waiting list for accommodation with the International Protection Accommodation Services.

“Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my department may make Additional Needs Payments to help meet essential expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income or from other personal and household resources. Entitlement only arises where a person can demonstrate that the expenditure is essential and that they have no means of funding the expenditure themselves,” the Minister added.

“The statistical reporting for Additional Needs Payments was revised in 2022 and 2023, to extract more complete information, including identification of such payments to International Protection applicants. Table 2 shows the annual expenditure for Additional Needs Payments to International Protection applicants in receipt of daily expenses allowance from 2022-2024. Figures specifically relating to payments to International Protection applicants for previous years are not available.”

Separately, a letter from an Department of Justice official, released under freedom of information, said that ‘chronic backlogs in dealing with applications for asylum were so long that it could encourage people to claim asylum in Ireland because the process was known to be so slow’.

‘In a pre-budget letter to the Department of Public Expenditure, the department said during 2024 just 1,200 decisions were being made each month while 1,800 new applications were being made,’ the Irish Examiner reported.