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SOCIAL WELFARE SUPPORTS of €141.4 million has been provided by the Department of Social Protection so far this year.
Under the temporary protection directive, Ukrainians that arrive in Ireland are entitled to a weekly social welfare payment as well as additional supports for their children, such as child benefit.
Everyone arriving to Ireland under the temporary protection directive can also apply for a medical card.
Cabinet was today updated on the department’s finance management which found spending is 1.4% higher than profiled for this year, with additional spending also going on Covid supports such as additional payments for the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme.
A Government spokesperson said the overspend is due to the “very necessary and important decisions” that had to be taken by the minister in light of the Ukraine crisis.
Last week, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told that the State’s total spend on the Ukraine crisis is €1 billion
The PAC heard some €593 million has been spent to date on the Ukrainian war, with €448 million projected to be spent on accommodation costs before the end of 2022.
Government policy on the Ukrainian response has hardened in recent days with the introduction of a refusals policy which means Ukrainian refugees will not get a second offer if they turn down alternative accommodation and refuse to vacate their hotels.
Overspends
Cabinet was also informed of an overspend within the Department of Education, with a net expenditure until the end of September standing at €7.039 billion or 78.5% of the Department’s 2022 allocation of €8.964 billion.
This is €314 million, or 4.7% ahead of profile.
Net current expenditure is running €144 million ahead of profile, while net capital expenditure is running €170 million ahead of profile.
The main reasons current expenditure is running €144 million ahead of profile is due to costs for substitute teachers being higher than anticipated at this stage in the year, largely due to Covid-19, pension costs, higher fuel costs for school transport, and providing for additional pupils from Ukraine.
The Government states that capital expenditure costs are ahead of profile due to issues such as construction inflation; a need to deliver a large cohort of special class and special school places at pace to support children with additional needs as well as the urgent need to cater for 12,544 school children from Ukraine.
The Department of Education is engaging with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to managing funding pressures for the rest of the year, with the need for a substantive Supplementary Estimate for the department needed before year-end.
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Seems like a worthy cause. I’m just shocked that such a high figure of over €100 million might represent such a small percentage of the overall social welfare costs to the state. It reaffirms my belief the state provides far too much money for too long to many who likely do not need or deserve it. But that is not the point of this article, so I’ll leave it there.
@Richard: Just put an end-date to welfare. You’ve got max 6 months. Done. (Unless there’s a permanent disability). Because we just promote ppl to live off welfare, cash-in-hand nixers etc for so long, their kids don’t see anything else. Again, off topic here.
@Richard: Of the €23 billion in budget 2023 for the department of social protection, pensions are 8.6 billion and illness, disability and carers represent 5.2 billion. You also have children’s allowance in there, and various other social welfare payments, plus the cost of administering the system. So the amount going to people who do not need nor deserve it is probably not that much in the grand scheme of things.
https://whereyourmoneygoes.gov.ie/en/socialprotection/2023/
@Ricky Walsh: A bit of separation of genuine cases vs opportunists might yield lets say 20/30 million to give some kind of figure. Yes, it’s a drop in the ocean but it buys a lot of toilet paper and art supplies for schools. It could also greatly help quiet a few families with a differently abled child.
Interesting fact. Ireland is using nearly 270 hotels to house refugees. The UK is using nearly 300 hotels and they are 13.6 times our population.
@Celtic Eagle: So we should just copy England and measure ourselves by their standards should we? You don’t aim very high or think very much of your own country do you?
@Celtic Eagle: Skyscraper hotels?
@Celtic Eagle: The UK is providing a huge amount of both military equipment and expertise. We are offering nada. Not even a SRAAW or 84!
Money well spent – proud of the work our country is doing to support.
@Shane Dunne: absolutely. We should be doing everything we can to help.
@Shane Dunne: I think we should give them even more.
@Shane Dunne: LOL
@Shane Dunne: support for refugees but no support for own people house under in high depth.
@Sylvia Vasya: what’s so funny Sylvia? How’s the evil west treating you? Why don’t you go back to your motherland to help your Z comrades?
@Pranab Vasudeva: Support for genuine war refugees and support for college kids looking for summer jobs and a hotel should be differentiated. It’s unfair to actual genuine refugees and to us to say otherwise.
A couple simple questions that no one seems to answer. How much of an allowance does each Individual Refugee and Family group get, and what other entitlements do they receive. Finally how much does each Commercial Buisness (Hotels, B & Bs and Private Rental Accommodation) get for housing the Refugees get. Costings information on this is very vague.
@Owen G Mc Ginley: Same allowance as any other person accessing social welfare in Ireland, plus they have to abide by the same rules for each scheme….. Jobseekers, Pension, Disability
Jobsekers get
208 – Single
138 – spouse
48 – Child over 12
40 – Child under 12
@6Shangan: Thanks for that, but how much is the Commercial operator’s getting to squeeze 4 or more people into a room per night. They are the ones the Government are allowing to continue to take advantage of the situation.
@6Shangan: Another genuine question. I hear reports of people keeping welfare and a hotel room when working. Do you have any info on this or what the criteria is?
We might not be able to contribute militarily but Looking back, years from now…. Our
willingness to help Ukrainian refugees during this war will be a massive source of pride.
@Ronnie Mhelan: Agree. The begrudgers against immigration, who are a tiny minority, just want to see Ireland as isolated and as dull as it was in the De Valera era. Thank god for immigrants and the wonderful diversity of colour, customs and experience they have brought with them. I grew up in the ugly concrete of the 1960’s and the homogenous pastry-white freckled faces of the curtaining-twitching Mna agus Fir na hEireann. Glad it’s buried and behind us. When I see children out playing now, a mix of Irish, Ukrainian, East European, Brazilian, Black and Asian, it gives my heart a lift and great hope for our future.
@Paul Whitehead: in 20 years when Irish are an ethnic minority in Ireland and businesses are still hiring non Irish over more qualified Irish in the name of diversity, it will be a proud time indeed for the self hating Irishman.
The new EU tax for Ukraine should be no bother to us either, if it is applied as a USC. The difficulty might be that it will have to increase as the numbers of migrants increases.
@Bramley Hawthorne: you mean refugees. theyre fleeing a war
@Bramley Hawthorne: The USC is a temporary tax. It will be gone once the last recession is over surely.
A drop in the Financial ocean compared to the extreme amount of Taxpayers money spent on That children’s Hospital…..Why don’t the government just buy several apt blocks for those poor unfortunate Ukrainians,them give them to the poor irish when they become available.
@Larry Rawson: it never ceases to amaze me at peoples disdain at the building of a hospital for children.
@Sean McCarthy: What ye on about sean? Everyone wants a proper hospital for children,just not a rip off one.
@Sean McCarthy: but if a childish strawman comment there.
No one is ‘against a children’s hospital’.
They’re against widescale corruption and incompetence which have been the trademarks of successive governments here.
@Fergal McDonagh: Add to that built in a completely unsuitable location with no room for parking for staff or parents or further development down the line when it becomes inadequate size wise which of course it will.
@Larry Rawson: They won’t become available for Irish. This isn’t a short term thing. People will have built lives here, possibly kids in school, a steady job. I doubt that most if given a free apartment will go back to Ukraine in 8 years when the war ends.
Lol
There’s lots of Ukrainians working and contributing to the Irish economy. This isn’t specified in the article. This would offset the €1billion euro spend. At the end of the day the trauma they’ve suffered is indescribable.
have your say