Social Protection Expenditure in Ireland 2024

Social protection expenditure

The preliminary estimates for 2024 show that €69.9 billion was spent on social protection measures. This is equivalent to 12% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 22% of Modified Gross National Income (GNI*). Compared with 2023, there was an increase of €3.9 billion or 5.9%.

Figure 1.1 presents a comparison of 2019 to 2024. This chart excludes administrative costs, which are shown in Table 1.2.

Figure 1.1 shows that spending on social protection continues to increase each year. It also shows that the share of expenditure by risk has changed somewhat to reflect changing social protection needs. In 2024, the Unemployment function is now the second smallest functional category at €2.5 billion, down from third place in 2020 (€7.3 billion) during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the Disability function saw the second largest increase in expenditure (9%), after the Sickness function (11%). The Survivor and Social Exclusion functions also showed substantial increases (8% and 6%) respectively. Increased weekly social welfare payments and once-off "cost of living" lump sum payments explain these changes. 

Social Protection Schemes in Ireland

In Ireland, social protection receipts and expenditure are organised into seven schemes:

• Housing
• Private Occupational Pensions
• Department of Social Protection Voted Expenditure
• Public Health
• Government Employment
• Social Insurance Fund
• Child Protection

See Background Notes for more information on the data sources for and coverage of these schemes. By structuring the data by scheme, an analysis of how social protection expenditure is funded is possible.

There are three main sources of receipts for social protection schemes – government general revenues, social contributions, and other receipts. In Ireland, social protection is primarily funded either by government (61%) or by social contributions (33%). At just under 6%, other receipts are a small proportion of the funding. At an individual schemes level, the predominant source of receipts can vary.

Table 1.2, Figure 1.2 and Figure 1.3 present data on the receipts and expenditure of social protection schemes in Ireland in 2024.

Social protection expenditure includes administrative costs and expenditure on social benefits. Social benefits consist of transfers to households and individuals to relieve them of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs as categorised into the eight functions. These can be "in cash", for example, the payment of unemployment benefits and pensions or "in kind", such as health care services free at the point of delivery. In 2024, non-means-tested benefits (both cash and in kind) accounted for nearly three-quarters of social protection expenditure. Means-tested benefits (i.e. benefits that are explicitly or implicitly conditional on the beneficiary’s income and/or wealth falling below a specified level), both cash and in kind, were a quarter of expenditure. Administration costs account for 3% of expenditure.

The Public Health scheme is the largest scheme in terms of expenditure (€26.8 billion or 39.7% of total), followed by Department of Social Protection (DSP) Voted Expenditure (€13.5 billion or 20.1%), the Social Insurance Fund (€13.1 billion or 19.4%), Government Employment (€6.1 billion or 9%) and Private Occupational Pensions (€4.2 billion or 6.2%). The Housing scheme accounts for €2.8 billion or 4.2% of expenditure and the Child Protection scheme €1 billion or 1.5% of expenditure.

Table 1.3 and Figure 1.4 present data on social protection schemes by function (excluding administration costs) in 2024 in Ireland. The Sickness function accounts for the largest proportion of expenditure on social benefits (€30 billion or 44.4%) and, unsurprisingly, most of this expenditure falls under the Public Health scheme (€26.8 billion). However, other schemes provide protection benefits within the sickness function such as the Government Employment scheme in the form of paid sick leave.

The Old Age function is the next largest category of expenditure at €18.4 billion or 27.2% and is mainly comprised of pension payments. Contributory State Pension payments at €9.5 billion were paid by the Social Insurance Fund; €4.3 billion was paid in public sector pensions; €3.1 billion was paid by private occupational pensions; and €1.6 billion was paid out in non-contributory state pensions payments (DSP Voted Expenditure).

The Family and Children function was the third largest category of expenditure at €5.9 billion. The majority, (€4.4 billion) falls under DSP Voted Expenditure and relates to Child Benefit payments. Social protection benefits in relation to Family and Children are also provided by the Social Insurance Fund and the Government Employment scheme in relation to parental benefits and paid maternity and paternity leave.

In 2024, the Housing function was the fourth largest function at €4.1 billion or 5.9% of all social benefit expenditure. This primarily relates to the provision of social housing by Local Authorities and Approved Housing Bodies, emergency accommodation to persons seeking refuge from the war in Ukraine, and RAS² and HAP³ to people needing housing support payments. 

The Disability function closely follows the Housing function at €3.6 billion. The majority of expenditure on social benefits protecting against Disability comes from the DSP's Disability Allowance (Voted Expenditure). The payment of the Invalidity Pension accounts for most of the protection against Disability under the Social Insurance Fund.

The Unemployment, Survivors and Social Exclusion functions make up the remaining €5.6 billion of social protection benefits.

_{² RAS: Rental Accommodation Scheme}

³ _{HAP: Housing Assistance Payment}

International comparison

Data on social protection expenditure are collected under the 'European System of Integrated Social Protection Statistics' programme (ESSPROS) which facilitates an international comparison of data on the expenditure and receipts of social protection within European countries (see Background Notes).

Fig 1.5 presents data on means-testing of benefits in the European Union in 2024. The majority of benefits in the EU are non-means-tested ranging from 99% in Estonia to 64% in Denmark. Ireland has the second largest proportion of means-tested data (25%) after Denmark. The European average for means-testing of benefits is 11%.