Spending on social welfare is falling sharply as a percentage of the Republic's resources, figures published yesterday show.
The £4.8 billion spent on social welfare last year represents 10.2 per cent of the Republic's GNP - Gross National Product - the statistical report by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs shows.
This is a significant fall on 1992, when social welfare spending absorbed 13 per cent of GNP, the highest figure for the past decade. Last year's figure is the lowest for the decade. Total social welfare expenditure increased by 5.3 per cent in 1998, up by £239 million on the previous year.
Figures for the decade also show a remarkable consistency in social welfare spending - it has stood at about one-third of net Government expenditure throughout the period.
It is clear from the figures that the fall in welfare spending as a percentage of national income is due to the economic boom of the past few years. Spending on unemployment assistance, for instance, has fallen by nearly £200 million in two years. In all, spending on unemployment is down by about 9 per cent.
However, the figures also suggest that many people are finding it hard to get by, and this applies particularly to the cost of accommodation. Last year the State paid subsidies of almost £88 million to 40,000 people who could not otherwise have afforded to pay rent to private landlords.
In keeping with long-term trends, as unemployment payments fell old-age payments rose. Pensions cost 24 per cent of total spending. They were followed by payments to widows, widowers and one-parent families (18 per cent) and child-related payments (10 per cent).
Of the £4.8 billion spent last year, just under half (44 per cent) was funded by PRSI contributions, with the rest paid for by the Exchequer. Employers' contributions accounted for 71 per cent of the PRSI contributions, employees' contributions for 23 per cent and contributions by self-employed people for 6 per cent.
Releasing the figures yesterday the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, said the fall in unemployment payments was a highlight.
He also pointed to a 28 per cent increase in spending on "employment support" measures - welfare subsidies to people at work, usually for a period after they have come off the unemployed register - "as evidence of my determination to continue to tackle the unemployment issue in an attempt to ensure that the opportunity to participate in the workforce is made available to all."
Employment support measures cost £158 million, compared with £843 million for unemployment payments.
Close to 854,000 people were in receipt of weekly welfare payments at the end of last year. When their adult dependants and children are added in, the total comes to 1.4 million people.