Councillor: ‘Foreigners will collapse social welfare system’

An outspoken Monaghan county councillor has blasted foreign nationals who claim social welfare benefits, saying they will make the system collapse.

Seamus Treanor, 64, an Independent who topped the poll in his constituency in 2009, has appeared on Newstalk and Northern Sound radio over the past two days. He claimed 40% of the social welfare budget goes to foreign people.

The Department of Social Protection denied this, saying there is no breakdown by nationality of who claims what from the social welfare pool, which distributes about €21bn via 50 different schemes.