State failed to recoup €1bn in welfare overpayments

€354m was lost because of unrecovered overpayments between 2016 and 2025 — in addition to an outstanding debt balance of €597.4m at the end of 2015

Data released to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín show that, between 2016 and 2025, some €354m has been lost because of unrecovered overpayments. File photo: iStock

Nearly €1bn in social welfare overpayments have not been recovered by the Department of Social Protection in the last decade, new figures have revealed.

The figures released to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín show that between 2016 and 2025, some €354m has been lost because of unrecovered overpayments. This is in addition to an outstanding debt balance of €597.4m at the end of 2015.

He told the Irish Examiner that there needs to be clarity about how much of this unrecovered money is because of overpayments related to fraud or departmental error.

Mr Tóibín received the figures following a parliamentary question submitted to social protection minister Dara Calleary.

The figures confirmed that between 2016 and 2025, some €1.22bn in overpayments were made. This varied from €99.2m in 2020 to €168.m in 2025. 2020 was the only year where the overpayments did not amount to over €100m.

In the same 10-year period, gross recoveries amounted to €867.2m, with €354.2m never recouped.

However, the Department of Social Protection also confirmed that at the end of 2015, the outstanding debt balance was €597.4m.

That brings the total amount of unrecovered overpayments to €952m.

Last year, some €119m of €168.7m of overpayments were recouped, with €100.8m of €157.5m overpayments in 2024 recovered.

Mr Calleary told Mr Tóibín that the Department of Social Protection is “committed to ensuring that only those people who are eligible receive payments and other social protection entitlements”.

“Achieving this requires that robust safeguards are in place that secure payment systems, detect possible fraud and error, and prevent possible fraudulent claiming,” he said.

“All schemes operated by my Department are subject to ongoing control reviews and eligibility checks.”

This, he said, includes working with the Revenue Commissioners to “identify inconsistencies in information provided to the Department by persons making or re-establishing an entitlement”.

Mr Calleary said that when overpayments are identified, “recovery is pursued through a number of channels including through deductions from schemes in payment, repayment by way of direct debits or through attachments of earnings”. He added: 

Fraudulent claiming may also be the subject of prosecution.

Mr Tóibín said that the figures should make “jaws drop around the country”.

“In the other scandals that we have seen, the Government received infrastructure for grossly inflated prices. But in this instance the Government just simply gave away nearly €1bn to people who were not entitled to it,” he said.

“We are in the middle of an energy crisis. People cannot afford fuel. The carbon tax has increased the price of fuel to unaffordable levels. It has become a major contentious political issue. Yet last year it brought in just over €1bn, an amount similar to this waste.”

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Mr Tóibín said that the minister did not confirm how much of the money related to overpayments related to fraud, and how much related to “incompetence” by the Department of Social Protection.

“The issue of accountability arises here. Is there any person working for any business in the country that could lose €1bn and stay in their job?” he added.