From children to construction workers, school meals to social welfare, here are 10 key takeaways from the 90-page report

Spending on Social Protection has soared over the last five years.

In 2024, and not even including the temporary cost-of-living measures, the bill for Social Protection was €25.2bn, up €4.5bn from 2019.

The largest increase was in pensions – up by €2.3bn a year in that period.

This is despite an economy with almost full employment

The increase in social-welfare payments is somewhat surprising given that there are more people at work than ever, and fewer unemployed. Since 2019, participation in the labour market has increased by 3.6 percentage points, driven by a higher number of women at work – up almost 5 percentage points.

Meanwhile the number of people registered long-term unemployed – that is, for more than a year – fell by 14,000. Once that trend reverses, as it inevitably will, the Social Protection bill will rise further.

The number of people with a disability is increasing

How can it be that the number of people in receipt of social protection payments rose even though the Live Register was down? The report says it is due to demographics, but also because eligibility for some schemes expanded, and there was an increase in the prevalence of disability.

One in five people in Ireland has a disability, and the employment rate in that cohort is the lowest in the EU. Only one in three people with a disability has a job.

Spending on disability services has soared

It has grown by about €1bn in the last five years, and stood at just over €3bn last year. The number of people getting Disability Allowance was up 14pc, from 146,755 to 167,633.

The Government does not believe it is getting value from the extra money it is spending on disability services. There has not been a “corresponding increase in the level of activity”, the report says.

Extra health spending is not achieving results either

More expenditure on the health service, including hiring more staff, has not resulted in a commensurate increase in outputs. The biggest increase in activity are in the areas of least spending, such as emergency departments and outpatients, which represent less than 20pc of expenditure on acute hospitals.

Spending on children is up.

Even though the birth rate is decreasing, the budget for children grew by €225m between 2019 and last year. This is because of expansions in child benefit eligibility, with 18-year-olds in full time education now qualifying, and the school meals scheme expanding.

We’re short of construction workers

The report points out that the number of people working in the building sector slumped after the Financial Crisis, going from 240,000 down to 80,000 in five years. Since then it has gradually recovered, and now there are about 170,000.

As a share of the labour force, though, construction workers make up only 6pc now compared to 11pc at the height of the boom in 2006.

Productivity in the building sector needs to improve

It’s not just the shortage of workers that’s a problem, it’s productivity levels in the construction industry. They are about 25pc below the euro-area average.

There has to be a “focus on continued improvement” in productivity, the report says, bringing it up to the average across comparable European countries.

Energy and water projects are being caught up in red tape

Apart from planning permission, the energy and water sectors also need to get environmental consents, for extraction, generation and waste disposal. There has been “some evidence” of delays in those consents being granted, the report says.

The time delays resulted in “significant cost inflation” for projects, and it’s meant there will be several extra years where their benefits don’t accrue.

No specific projects are mentioned, but it is known that Ireland is among the worst performing countries in the EU when it comes to planning permission for solar and onshore wind projects.

Pensioners are relatively well off

For a single pensioner, the report says, the increase in social welfare payments and the one-off cost-of-living measures have more than offset inflation in the period between 2019 and 2024. That included the spike after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when the rate went to almost 8pc.

“Retired people are one of the best-insulated groups against poverty in the state,” it claims.

Spending on pensions is up by 28pc since 2019, but this is due to the ageing population as well as the payment rate increases.