New data released to Peadar Toibín TD show that 31% of the total number of persons on Jobseekers Payments are non-nationals, a finding the Aontú leader said is of concern.
The numbers released by the Minister for Social Protection in response to a parliamentary question show there are a total of 107,131 people in receipt of the payment, and that 73,487 are Irish nationals (69%) while 33,644 (31%) people are non-Irish.
That means €543m was spent on jobseekers last year for non-Irish persons, while €1.19bn was spent on Irish recipients, the Aontú TD’s office said.
Deputy Tóibín said: “The proportion of people who were born outside of Ireland and who are drawing down jobseekers is bigger than that their proportion in the general public. This is of concern.”
“According to the CSO non-citizens make up 16% of the population, he said – but pointed to the statistics from the CSO which show the percentage of foreign born individuals within the population is 23%.
In this case, the total categorised as Irish nationals include persons born overseas but who may have been awarded citizenship here.
Tóibín said the figures released “show that non-Irish born people make up 31% of the number of people on job seekers. We believe that we should help those who are fleeing war and violence and that many immigrants are working hard in our hospitals and nursing homes. But these figures also show that 33,644 people who were born outside the country are not working at all.”
“This is a point that’s seldom raised in the debate on immigration. There is a cost to it. We are spending €543m on Job Seekers every year for non-Irish born people,” he said.
“It is not good for the country and it’s not good for the non-Irish resident. Its not good for anyone for the government to bring people into the country and for them to not be working,” he added.
“It is a very tight labour market, where employers are crying out for workers. It’s not as if the jobs aren’t there. The European Union states that if an EU citizen wants to stay in Ireland for over six months, they must fund themselves and not be a burden social welfare. For EU citizens who are not funding themselves after six months, under EU law, the government has the right to return these people to their home countries.”
“People cannot go to the United States and live primarily on social welfare. You cannot move to Australia or Sweden and live on welfare. This is true for most countries. Ireland is an outlier in these terms. We are calling on the government to inject some commonsense into the system and ensure that we align with best international practice and this is brought to an end,” the Aontú leader said.
The Minister in releasing the data said “Expenditure is recorded at the scheme level, not the individual level, and it is not possible to accurately attribute expenditure to individual characteristics such as nationality.”
“Recipient figures by nationality are available. The number of non-Irish nationals in receipt of Jobseeker’s payments for 2021 – 2025 is shown in the table below. All figures are as of the 31 December of each year. Note that Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit was introduced in April 2025 and replace Jobseeker’s Benefit for fully unemployed customers.”
“Nationality breakdowns are published on a quarterly and annual basis. The Quarterly Statistical Report is a count of unique persons who received at least one payment in the given quarter. The most recent report refers to Q1 2026; the Q2 report is scheduled for publication in August. The Annual Statistics Report is a count of all persons on 31st December with an Awarded and Paying claim on that date. The 2025 Annual Statistics Report was published in July, and nationality breakdowns are published in table B4. An archive of the Annual Reports is also available on gov.ie,” he added.
“These statistics are all published through the statistics landing page, gov.ie/dsp/statistics. Expenditure is recorded at the scheme level, not the individual level, and it is not possible to accurately attribute expenditure to individual level characteristics such as nationality. Excerpts from the 2025 Annual Statistics Report are provided in the tables below,” he said.
Table B4 – Recipients by Broad Nationality Group
| Scheme | Irish nationals | EU13 | EU 15-27 | United Kingdom | Other nationals |
| Jobseeker’s Allowance | 73,487 | 1,545 | 9,051 | 3,768 | 19,280 |
| Jobseeker’s Allowance Transition | 11,638 | 262 | 2,395 | 446 | 3,537 |
| Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit | 24,289 | 1,202 | 3,414 | 875 | 2,140 |
| Jobseeker’s Benefit | 14,472 | 341 | 1,300 | 585 | 549 |
| Of which | |||||
| Jobseeker’s Benefit Self Employed | 514 | 19 | 56 | 29 | 20 |
| Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds | 3,945 | 35 | 61 | 154 | 29 |
| Short Time Work Support | 525 | 14 | 75 | 29 | 27 |
The figures mirror those released in June to Offaly Independent TD, Carol Nolan, which showed that ol Nolan, show that one in three of long term unemployed persons are non-Irish nationals.
Of a total of 151,497 people who were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in the first quarter of 2026, 49,898 or 32.9% were of non-Irish nationality, an analysis by Matt Treacy found,
The largest proportion of these were from outside of the EU and the UK, which means that they came here either having been issued with work permits; as asylum seekers, or as the dependents of one of the former.
It ought also be taken into account that a sizeable number of persons born outside of the Irish state have been granted Irish citizenship so the proportion of non-Irish born long term unemployed is closer to 40% than one third.