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This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series output and is the first in a series of annual releases based on a new methodology developed by the CSO that allows for an analysis of demographics, economic activity, and social welfare activity for people seeking International Protection who are beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance for the years 2016 to 2024.
The Daily Expense Allowance is a social welfare benefit which is only available to International Protection applicants, however not all people seeking International Protection benefit from the Daily Expense Allowance. For more information on the methodology, including the definition of employment activity, see the Editor's Note or the Frequently Asked Questions.
As a CSO Frontier Series release, this release may use methods 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.
This release uses a novel methodology that has been developed by the CSO to compile statistics about individuals who at some point between 2016 and 2024 applied for International Protection in Ireland. This approach uses the Daily Expense Allowance, a social welfare benefit which only people seeking International Protection can receive. Employment activity and social welfare activity has been determined for the group, along with sex, age, nationality and the year that Daily Expense Allowance administrative activity began. Several important concepts for the Insights on Applicants of International Protection Using Administrative Data, 2024 publication are presented below.
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 if they have 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 safety.
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. Note that that the International Protection process involves a number of steps; an application is made, a decision is awaited, International Protection status is then either granted or not. Applicants not granted International Protection also have the option to appeal. Those identified with the new CSO methodology are those people who are beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance.
The Daily Expense Allowance is a social welfare benefit 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 Daily Expense Allowance. For this new CSO methodology this social welfare benefit is used as an initial indicator to determine individuals at the start of the International Protection process.
This report provides insights on beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance, a significant subset of people seeking International Protection in Ireland. As noted, these persons are International Protections 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.
The release provides insight on three main areas: Demographics, Economic Activity and Signs of Life.
Employment activity for the purposes of this publication includes people appearing on the Revenue PAYE payroll database. On this database, the level of activity could vary from having worked one week (this could be one day) per year to working full-time (or part-time) throughout the year. For the purposes of this analysis, any employments of less than €500 per annum and employments where the duration was less than two weeks in the year were excluded.
Rules around the entrance to labour market have changed over time for people in the International Protection process, the International Protection Modernisation Programme 2023 -2024 report was published by the Department of Justice. The report states that the waiting period for labour market access was reduced to 6 months from 9 months which took effect in February 2021. This lag time in access to the labour market is clearly evident throughout the results.
In population statistics, Signs of Life is a statistical method that uses administrative data that could be indicative of the actual presence and usual residence of a person in a relevant territory or country. Presence of a "sign of life" could be an indication that a person interacts with the State which is evidence that they are usually resident. Absence of a "sign of life" could be an indication that a person does not interact with the State; but this person may have a relationship with someone who does interact with the State; or this absence may be evidence that they are not usually resident.
Signs of Life was explored using two methods: Method 1 - Monthly Administrative Activity and Method 2 - Presence on Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS), 2023.
Monthly administrative activity has been determined for each person aged 15 or above (in the year in question) with social welfare activity (including the Daily Expense Allowance) or employment activity. Any monthly administrative data indicates a "sign of life" for a person in the calendar year in question. Social welfare activity for the purposes of this publication includes any person appearing in the Department of Social Protection (DSP) real-time database. This includes claims such as unemployment benefit, child benefit, additional needs payment and the daily expense allowance.
Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS), 2023 estimates the Administrative Population of Ireland. In IPEADS the Administrative Population concept has been defined by the CSO as follows:
"The concept of Administrative Population uses a Signs of Life statistical method to estimate those persons resident in the State for most of the time in the 12 months prior to April of the reference year. The method is based on CSO-pseudonymised versions of administrative data collected by Government Departments, agencies and public bodies other than the CSO. This data can be indicative of the actual presence and usual residence of a person in the State."
IPEADS features statistics that are entirely based on administrative records from the datasets mentioned below in the "Methodology" section but with the added benefit of covering more datasets such as educational datasets. A full list of the data used in the IPEADS publication can be found in the IPEADS background notes. It is possible to assess the presence of beneficiaries of the Daily Expense Allowance (up to 2022) on the 2023 IPEADS dataset. IPEADS also has the advantage of covering the full age distribution of the population and thus can be used to provide evidence of a "sign of life" for those aged above and below 15 years of age.
The Central Records System (CRS) is a legacy system within the Department of Social (DSP) which holds data on their customers held on different systems within DSP. Demographic data from the CRS used in this publication include information on age, sex, nationality, and relationships, for example dependent children and spouse. Further information on nationality is provided below.
As outlined in the Demographics chapter, data on country of nationality is derived from information collected by DSP. Country of nationality is classified using country codes (ISO 3166) and presented as follows;
Results presented are based on a data-matching exercise of three administrative data sources:
Linkage and analysis was undertaken by the CSO for statistical purpose in line with the Statistics Act, 1993, and the CSO Data Protocol.
Before using personal administrative data for statistical purposes, the CSO removes identifying personal information including the Personal Public Service number (PPSN). The PPSN is a unique number that enables individuals to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation, or other public service in Ireland. The CSO converts the PPSN to a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). The PIK is a unique non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of individual data. The DSP records in receipt of the daily expense allowance were linked with Revenue and CRS records using the PIK for this project. All records in the dataset are anonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which means it is not possible to identify any individuals form the data we publish.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.