Taxpayers’ €90m benefits bill for overseas children

IRELAND is set to give more than €90 million a year in child benefits to EU nationals whose dependants live abroad — despite one in five claims being rejected as bogus.

The Department of Social and Family Affairs is trying to cope with more than 20,000 applications for the payments, but 4,000 of these are expected to be eventually denied.

New figures reveal claims have spiralled from 30 a week in 2005 to more than 450 per week in the first four months of this year.