CLAIMS THAT THE Irish government pays for Ukrainian refugees to have their cars repaired have spread widely, prompting anger from some online commentators.

While these claims appear to have originated on a TikTok video, very similar claims were echoed in the Dáil last week, prompting a testy exchange involving the Tánaiste.

The Claims

Speaking in Dáil Eireann on 20 March, Ken O’Flynn, an Independent Ireland TD for Cork North-Central challenged the government on the issue of payments to Ukrainians.

“Will the Tánaiste confirm whether the reported payments to Ukrainian refugees for vehicle repairs, including sums ranging from €400 to €7,000, are being sourced from the exceptional needs payments of the Department of Social Welfare or is this coming from the humanitarian funding?” O’Flynn asked.

(O’Flynn was referring to additional needs payments, which are one-off payments for essentials that the recipient can show they cannot afford, e.g. to fix a broken washing machine.)

“Does the Tánaiste believe that this expenditure is good value for money, especially in light of challenges to Irish citizens?” he continued.

“We know that 800,000 Irish citizens have left these shores since 2008 to live in countries such as Australia and Canada.”

Amid some back-and-forth bickering, Tánaiste Simon Harris said that he would seek answers to these questions, before stating: “People fled here from very difficult situations and I am proud of the level of support we provide them.

“I do not want to give a sense to people watching that there are widespread repairs of people’s cars going on.”

An almost identical claim had been working its way online days before the Dáil exchange, appearing to have originated from a video on a car shop’s TikTok account, in which a man says they had done at last one repair job on a car belonging to a Ukrainian living in Ireland.

“Did you know,” the video begins, “that the Irish taxpayer is paying for asylum seekers’ car repairs?”

The man goes on to specify he only knows of “a couple of incidents” over the last year which all involved Ukrainians, though he speculates that other foreign nationals are also covered.

Ukrainians in Ireland are technically not counted as “asylum seekers”, as those who came after the Russian invasion were considered Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection (BOTP); they did not need to engage with the asylum seeking process in Ireland.

In the TikTok video, the man says to camera that one Ukrainian client asked for an invoice for repair work which was later paid directly by the Department of Social Protection. He also said that a customer had asked for a quote on replacing an engine which would cost “several thousand Euro”. He does not say whether that customer returned or if the department agreed to pay for the work.

The video appears to have originally been posted on TikTok, but is no longer on the car shop’s account — however copies of the video are still available on other platforms, including versions posted on 19 March, the day before the claim appears to have been repeated in the Dáil.

It should be noted that the video did not use the same figures quoted in the Dáil; the video describes a quote for a new engine of “several thousand” euro, not “seven thousand”.

The man in the video was also clear that the payments came from the Department of Social Protection; O’Flynn had asked whether it could have been taken from humanitarian funding instead. 

Similar claims about Ukrainians being entitled to more help than regular citizens is common throughout the EU, including in Ireland. The Journal has previously debunked claims that Ukrainian drivers were exempt from Irish laws, and that the Irish government had created a grant for Ukrainians to start their own businesses. 

The man in the video went on to say he was not “having a go” at Ukrainians or asylum seekers, but rather the system that spurns “Irish customers that have their own jobs and all of that, and there’s a €600, or a €1,000 maintenance job needed on their car, and they are genuinely struggling to afford and to pay for it”.

So, what is this system? Does it pay for Ukrainian car repairs? And are Irish people unable to get the same help?

Additional Needs Payments

In an email, the Department of Social Protection noted that there was no specific scheme to help repair cars, but confirmed that Additional Needs Payments (ANPs) could be used for such a purpose.

“Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, the Department of Social Protection may make an ANP to help meet essential expenditure which an eligible person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income, and which is deemed necessary,” they wrote.

“An ANP may be provided to assist with car repairs, however it is not possible to extract data solely related to ANPs provided towards car repairs.”

Such payments are explicitly allowed by law, though the legislation on them is light on specifics. Section 201 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, 2005, simply says a welfare officer may “decide that supplementary welfare allowance shall be paid to a person by way of a single payment to meet an exceptional need” if it is “reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances of the case”.

More information is given on the government’s website. “An Additional Needs Payment is a payment available to you if you have essential expenses that you cannot pay from your weekly income or other personal and household resources,” it reads.

“You may get this payment even if you are not getting a social welfare payment. It may be available to you if you are working and on a low income regardless of the number of hours that you work.”

The site goes on to list examples of what such payments can be used for, including property repairs, rental deposits, food, furniture, funerals, and childcare equipment.

The issue of payment was brought up in the Dáil in 2023 by then-Minister Eamon Ryan, who said that anyone who needed help paying for electricity could apply for it.

“Every effort will be made to ensure qualifying applicants receive an additional needs payment on the same day or as soon as possible where it relates to electricity and heating expenses,” he told the Dáil.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has also spoken about the payments in the Dáil.

“Over 5,800 additional needs payments were made in 2023 to assist with household bills and heating costs, at a total cost of almost €3 million,” she said last October.

However, these payments are subject to certain criteria.

“The Additional Needs Payment does not cover non-essential household or personal expenses,” the government’s website reads.

“Anyone on a social welfare payment or working and getting a low income may qualify for an Additional Needs Payment. We have to take your weekly household income, your savings and investments, your household expenses and the type of assistance you need into account.

“To get an Additional Needs Payment, your application will be reviewed by a Community Welfare Officer and they will look at your circumstances before deciding the payment you can get.”

Applicants also need to provide a PPS number, identity documents, and “documents to show your income, expenses and financial situation, such as payslips and bank statements”.

The Department did not respond to requests for a breakdown of how many of these payments had been given out, and whether there was a figure for how much was given to Ukrainian BOTPs.

These payments are accounted for as “exceptional and urgent needs payments” and a 2023 report (the latest available) shows that these payouts have been rising significantly, from €31 million in 2015, to €43 million in 2021, to more than €71 million in 2023.

The Department of Social Protection said in an email that, in 2024, about 83,000 Additional Needs Payments at a cost of over €72 million.

While these are large numbers, it should be noted that this is still a tiny proportion of the Department of Social Protection’s budget: about a quarter of 1%.

It should also be noted that there is no indication in the data that this rise is due, solely or in part, to Ukrainian BOTPs — their arrival also coincided with sharp price inflation and increases in rental and other costs.

After the number of applications jumped dramatically in 2022, then-Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said it showed the succcess of an extensive campaign – launched by her department to make people more aware of the payment.

Changes were also brought in that allow those working more than 30 hours to qualify for the payments.

Figures provided by Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary showed that just over half of claims appeared to be awared. 83,277 claims were awarded of 145,128 that were registered in 2024. This was down from 97,224 awarded of 146,569 registered claims two years prior. In both years, the most awarded category of cases was for clothing, though housing was also a significant reason cited in claims. 

All Additional Needs Payment applications are “considered on a case-by-case basis based on the need presenting”, the Department told The Journal.

“This entails an assessment, as opposed to a specific means test, of an applicant’s weekly household income, their savings and investments, their outgoings and the type of assistance needed. The assessment will also include any income that their spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant has.”

Ukrainians can receive payments to fix their cars if they can show that such repairs are an “exceptional need” that they cannot financially afford.

However, these payments are also available to Irish citizens.

Additional Needs Payments are open to anyone on a low income and have been paid out to Irish citizens since long before Ukrainians fled here en-masse following the Russian invasion in 2022.

People with jobs who are “struggling to afford” a car repair are likely eligible to apply for the same payment. Rather than increase “challenges to Irish citizens”, these payments are intended to alleviate them.

The claims should be presented with the context that, while the payments mentioned are available for some Ukrainians, they were not made specifically for Ukrainian people.

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