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THE number of foreign nationals working and getting personal public service numbers (PPSNs) plunged last year as thousands of people left the country in the economic downturn.

Despite the huge exodus, social welfare “activity” among those who have stayed has gone up — driven largely by sharp unemployment.

New figures show that more than 154,000 foreign nationals were given PPS numbers last year to help them gain access to social welfare benefits, public services and information inIreland.

This was a drop of more than 60,000 (28pc) on the 2007 figure and almost 72,000 fewer than the peak allocation in 2006.


But fewer than half of last year’s arrivals had employment during the year, according to the latest data from the Central Statistics Office.

Poland accounted for the biggest drop in PPS number allocations last year — plunging by more than 37,000 compared to the figure for 2007.

There were also sharp drops for Lithuania and Slovakia while in contrast, Brazil’s allocation continues to increase — rising by more than 800 to 5,627 last year.

The vast majority of the 425,600 foreign nationals who were given numbers between 2002-2008 had some employment last year.

They were working in five broad economic sectors — real estate, renting and business (94,900), hotels and restaurants (76,800), wholesale and retail trade (75,300), manufacturing (49,500) and construction (37,400).

The figures reveal that of the 118,000 foreign nationals, aged 15 and over, who were assigned numbers in 2004, only 48pc had any employment or engagement with the social welfare system last year.

From 2002-2008, nearly 968,000 foreign nationals, aged 15 and over, were assigned numbers, but by last year less than half were in employment.

“The drop off in employment is caused largely by people leaving the country.

“In contrast, and despite significant numbers leaving, the numbers recording social welfare activity have risen,” according to the CSO.

It cites several reasons for the increase — the birth of a child leading to child benefit claim, jobseekers’ claims driven particularly by rising unemployment last year and the fact that some benefits depend on habitual residence requirements or on having sufficient social insurance contributions.

Of the 118,000 foreign nationals, who arrived to Ireland in 2004, only 10pc recorded social welfare activity that year but this had risen to 24pc by last year.

The figures also show that contact with social welfare “increased noticeably” among the 10 countries which joined the EU in 2004. Of those who arrived that year, only 3pc had some social welfare activity during that year but the proportion had soared to 28pc last year.

- Fergus Black

Irish Independent