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CSO, 14 April 2025, 11am
This release, which is part of the CSO Frontier Series, presents statistics compiled from administrative data sources and provides insights on International Protection Applicants who are beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance. This is the first release in a series of annual releases.
A CSO Frontier Series output may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this experimental analysis.
International Protection is the protection granted by a government to someone who has left another country to escape being harmed. A person can apply for International Protection in Ireland and be granted residency under International Protection if they arrived in Ireland to escape persecution in their own country or if they cannot return to their country because of a well-founded fear for their safety.
While people are waiting for their decision on International Protection the government is legally obliged by EU and International law to provide them with basic supports.
The International Protection Office (IPO) manage applications for International Protection in Ireland. The IPO is an office within the Immigration Service Delivery Division of the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.
The International Protection Accommodation Service (IPAS) is responsible for the provision of accommodation for people in the International Protection process. IPAS is a division of the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration.
The Daily Expense Allowance (DEA) is a social welfare benefit only payable to applicants for International Protection who live in, or are on a waiting list to move into, accommodation provided by IPAS. It should be noted that not all people seeking International Protection are beneficiaries of the DEA.
Beneficiaries are all people who benefit from the DEA and not just the person who receives the payment, for example, dependent children and spouses are beneficiaries.
This release provides insights into a particular subset of those seeking International Protection as it only relates to the beneficiaries of the DEA. As noted, these people are International Protection applicants who live/have lived in IPAS accommodation or are about to move into IPAS accommodation between 2016 and 2024. The methodology described below details how this group was determined.
This release does not capture any information on beneficiaries of Temporary Protection from Ukraine. Information on these beneficiaries can be found in the CSO’s Arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland Series.
The release provides insight on three main areas: Demographics, Economic Activity, and Social Welfare Activity.
The Central Records System (CRS) is a system within the Department of Social Protection (DSP) which holds data on their customers on different systems within DSP. Demographic data from the CRS used in this publication includes information on age, sex, country of nationality, and relationships, for example dependent children and spouse.
Employment activity for the purposes of this release includes people appearing on the Revenue PAYE payroll database. On this database, the level of activity can vary from having worked one week per year to working full-time, or part-time throughout the year. For the purposes of this analysis, any employments earning less than €500 per annum and employments of less than two-weeks duration are excluded.
It is important to note there are conditions for accessing employment for those in the International Protection process. There is a six-month waiting period before labour market access is permitted, and prior to 2021 it was a nine-month waiting period. The time lag from this waiting period is evident throughout the results in the release.
Social welfare activity for the purposes of this release includes any person appearing in the Department of Social Protection (DSP) real-time database. This includes claims such as unemployment benefit, child benefit, state pension, and the daily expense allowance.
This release is based on a new methodology (as detailed below) that differs from that used by Government departments and agencies. For instance, other data released may focus on the number of applications received for International Protection whereas this release focuses on the number of beneficiaries of a payment, the DEA, only available to International Protection applicants. As such, care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this experimental analysis and it should not be directly compared to other datasets.
Results presented are based on a data-matching exercise of three administrative data sources:
Linkage and analysis was undertaken by the CSO for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Matching Policy.
For more information on the CSO’s use of Administrative Data sources and its focus on data confidentiality and privacy, you can find out more in our Trust and Transparency section.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.