Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 160: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will verify the accuracy of the claim made by NESC in its recent publication Managing Migration in Ireland A Social and Economic Analysis, that it is expected that migrants have contributed more in taxes and social insurance contributions than they have received in welfare payments in recent years. [37667/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the report by the International Organisation for Migration for the National Economic and Social Council of Ireland. The conclusions of the report refer to a number of studies which have found that on average migrants tend to pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits over their lifetime. One example to support this statement is a study undertaken in the United Kingdom, when by 2003-2004 immigrants accounted for 10 per cent of government tax receipts and only 9.1 per cent of government spending. The report does not refer to any studies undertaken in this State and I am not aware of any such studies at present.

I am not in a position to confirm that the amount of tax and PRSI paid by migrant workers in the State is greater than the value of state-funded payments and services from which they have benefited or will benefit in the future. However, there is every reason to believe that the net financial gain experienced in the UK is replicated here. For example, over 277,000 Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSNs) were issued between May 2004 and September 2006 to nationals of the ten states that joined the EU in 2004. Social welfare claims, other than child benefit and family income supplement claims, were subsequently received from fewer than 2% of the people concerned. The taxes and PRSI contributions paid by these 277,000 migrants would certainly have exceeded the value of social welfare payments paid to those among them who subsequently claimed a social welfare payment.

Spending on health, education and social welfare accounts for about three quarters of gross current spending. Because migrant workers have relatively low rates of recourse to those services, compared to the population in general, it is highly probable that migrants have contributed more in taxes and PRSI contributions than they will have received in State payments and services.