Written answer
Departmental Data
The Department cannot estimate Laois social protection expenditure for 2022 or 2026; national spending was €24.6 billion in 2022 and €27.4 billion in 2025.
616. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Social Protection the total number of recipients of social protection payments; the total value of those payments in 2022; and best estimate for 2026 in County Laois. [73484/26]
Comment on this
Social Protection expenditure is recorded at scheme level, not the individual level. Accordingly, it is not possible to produce an accurate estimate of the total value of social protection payments made in County Laois in 2022, or a projected expenditure figure for 2026.
Expenditure on social protection payments nationally amounted to €24.6 billion in 2022 and €27.4 billion in 2025. Detailed county and national breakdowns of social protection recipients by scheme are published as part of the Department's Quarterly Statistical Open Data and are available at:
www.gov.ie/en/department-of-social-protection/collections/quarterly-statistics/. These statistics count the number of unique persons who received at least one social protection payment in the particular quarter, per scheme.
Information on social protection expenditure and on end-of-year recipients is published in the Department's Annual Statistical Report which is available at: www.gov.ie/dsp/statistics
The table below sets out the number of recipients of social protection payments, by scheme, at national level and in County Laois for Quarter 2 2022 and Quarter 2 2026.