Citizens Information Services (CISs) National Statistics 2024

Overview

In 2024, Citizens Information Services nationwide assisted 395,017 callers. This represents a small decline of 0.7% over 2023 levels.

People who contact CISs often have more than one query for information officers; in 2024 the ratio was 1.94 queries per interaction, a slight fall on the 2.00 queries per interaction recorded in 2023.

Overall, CIS callers raised 767,168 queries. Although this represents a small (3.5%) decrease on 2023 figures, queries are becoming more complex. This is shown by by an increase in the time spent on calls, with nearly a 10% increase in calls lasting 21-40 minutes and an almost 2% increase in calls lasting 11-20 minutes.

The average number of callers per month was 32,918, slightly down from the average of 33,134 in 2023. January had the highest number of callers (38,151) and quarter one (January 1st to March 31st) was the busiest quarter with 106,122 callers (26.8% of the full year's callers).

Mode of Contact

In 2024, in-person callers accounted for 66.5% of contacts (262,851 callers). This is an increase of 11.1% on the previous year. Of those who were seen in person, 93.1% were drop-in and 6.9% were seen by appointment. As a result of this trend towards visits to centres, telephone contact dropped by 19.1% on 2023. Letter/email contact remained relatively low at 2.9% of call contacts.

Chart 2: Modes of Contact

Gender

Female callers made up 55.6% of total callers (219,632), while male callers made up 37.7% (148,756). Couples/family members - that is, more than one person seen together - made up 6.2% (24,374). Persons of unknown gender accounted for 0.6% of callers.

Chart 3: Gender of Callers to CISs in 2024

Age

Age was recorded for 69% of all callers. The 26-45 age group (38.4%) and the 46-65 age group (38.6%) made up the majority of callers where age was recorded. The proportion of callers aged 46-65 grew by 1.9%. The 26-45 age group dropped slightly by 0.7%. The proportion of callers aged 66 and over stood at 19.3%, a similar level to 2023, while the 25 and under group, while still relatively low, grew to 3.8%.

Chart 4: Number of Callers to CISs by Age Categories in 2024

Specific Needs

Specific needs within the CIS context are issues that can hamper access to services and/or require additional support and time to be provided by the CIS. They include language, literacy, distress, disability and online access issues.

During 2024, Information officers identified that 57,903 callers had specific needs - 14.7% of all callers. Some callers had two or more specific needs, with 77,887 specific needs recorded overall. Of the specific needs identified, the highest number (23,692 or 37.8%) were related to language, an increase of 4.3% on 2023. The number of people who were recorded as distressed was also up, by 4.5% over 2023. IT Access and Digital Literacy continue to be problematic with 13,531 such specific needs recorded across these two categories in 2024. Of total specific needs, 25.6% were related to Disabilities.

Table 1: Most Recorded Specific Needs 2024

Nationality/Country of Origin

Country of Origin was recorded for 62.3% of callers (246,218). Of these, callers from Ireland accounted for 75% of the total (183,526), while for 25% of callers, their country of origin was outside Ireland (62,692 callers). Callers whose country of origin was Poland decreased by 11.9% to 7,383, while the number of callers from Ukraine increased by 9.8% to 6,742.

The number of non-EU callers increased by 13% to 42,145 while the number of EU callers (excluding Ireland) decreased by 5.8% to 20,547.

Chart 5: Country of Origin: Ireland, EU and Non-EU

Chart 6: Breakdown by Age of Callers whose country of Origin was Ireland

Table 2: Callers' countries of origin by age group (excluding Ireland)

Query Profile

There were 767,168 queries to CISs in 2024. Most came under the headings of Social Welfare, Housing, Health, Money and Tax, or Employment.

Chart 7: Top CIS Query categories for 2024

Click a box to enlarge and see number of queries in that category.
Right click to minimise (Press and Hold on mobile or tablet).

Query Trends

Social Welfare Queries

Social Welfare was, as always, the category with the largest number of queries (346,054), representing 45.1% of all 2024 queries to Citizens Information Services. In terms of query numbers, this represented a 7% overall decrease compared to 2023. Proportionately, the decrease was 1.7% (Social Welfare queries making up 46.8% of 2023 queries):

• Extra Social Welfare Benefits (ESWB) remained the most queried social welfare sub-category with 53,456 queries, accounting for 16% of all Social Welfare queries. Within this category, there were 21,131 queries about the Fuel Allowance, 16,337 queries on the Household Benefits Package and almost 7,000 queries about Free Travel.
• Disability & Illness payment queries were the next highest sub-category, with a very similar number of queries (53,159) to Extra Social Welfare Benefits, accounting for over 15% of Social Welfare queries. Within this sub-category, there were 26,216 Disability Allowance queries (almost 50% of queries under this sub-category), 12,888 Illness Benefit queries, and 10,304 Invalidity Pension queries.
• The third highest Social Welfare query sub-category was that of Older and Retired People, with 48,031 queries, close to 14% of all Social Welfare queries. Of these, 26,385 (55%) concerned the Contributory State Pension and 11,570 (24%) were about the Non-Contributory State Pension.
• The fourth most queried Social Welfare sub-category was Carer's Payments and Schemes with 37,101 queries, accounting for approximately 11% of all Social Welfare queries. Within this, there were 22,466 Carer's Allowance (22,466) and 4,316 Carer's Benefit queries along with 4,230 Domiciliary Care Allowance queries.

Housing Queries

Housing was the second highest query category with 85,148 queries, a similar level to 2023. Housing queries made up 11% of all queries in 2024.

Over 50% of housing queries (43,078) were related to Local Authority and Social Housing, with the next most queried sub-category being Housing Grants and Schemes (13,809).

• More than half of all social housing queries concerned Applying for Local Authority/Social Housing, which increased by 2.5% (21,642).
• Housing Assistance Payment queries decreased by 8.7% (10,316)
• Housing Grants and Schemes queries made up 16.2% (13,809) of all Housing queries. Query levels in this category were similar to 2023.
• Renting a Home (Private Rental Accommodation) queries, meanwhile, decreased by 15.5% to 10,255, while Home Energy Grants (SEAI) queries increased by 23.2% (to 6,725).
• Homelessness queries increased by 10.8% (to 3,561).
• Buying/Owning a Home queries increased by 11.5% (2,589).

Health Queries

While there were decreases across most of the main query categories when compared to 2023, there was an increase of 6.8% in Health queries. The total number of health-related queries was 62,496:

• Medical Card (and GP Visit Card) queries accounted for 67% of the health-related queries.

Other Queries

Information staff logged 44,702 Money and Tax queries, a decrease of 7.1% on 2023:

• Income Tax Credits and Reliefs decreased by 13.7% and there was a small (2.3%) decrease in queries about Income Tax.
• Revenue Online queries decreased by 6.4%.
• Income Tax Refund and Capital Taxes increased by 2.1% and 4.2%, respectively.

Employment queries stood at 44,326 (a drop of 6.3% on 2023):

• Queries relating to Employment Rights and Conditions decreased by 9.8%.
• Contracts of Employment decreased by 11.4%.
• Leave and Holidays decreased by 28.9%.
• Unemployment and Redundancy decreased to just under 4,000 queries.
• Self-employment saw an increase of 8.6% to 3,721 queries.

There were almost 37,000 queries relating to Moving country:

• There was an increase of 23.5% in queries about Irish Residence Permit (IRP) applications and renewals.
• Queries relating to Visas increased by 5.9%.
• Queries relating to Asylum Seekers and Refugees increased significantly - by 62.3% to 1,771.
• Queries relating to Irish Citizenship decreased by 18.2% (11,810 queries).

Travel and Recreation queries decreased by 1.4% to 19,534:

• Queries relating to Motoring increased by 7.6% to 7,564.
• Queries about Passports decreased by 6.7% to 6,246.

Justice queries decreased by 6.8% to 18,705:

• Queries relating to Legal Aid and Advice decreased to 8,713, a reduction of 13.5%.
• Civil Law queries dropped to 1,544, a fall of 16%.
• Queries about the Courts System increased by 8% (890 queries).

There were over 16,000 queries related to Birth, Family and Relationships, a decrease of 9.6%:

• 4,775 of these queries were about Separation and Divorce, down by 10.9%.
• 2,124 queries were on Maintenance, a fall of 17.6%.

Education and Training queries decreased overall by 1.5% to 13,802:

• Third level education queries decreased by 3.8% (6,118).
• Vocational Education and Training queries increased to 2,091 queries, up by 30.5%.

Consumer Affairs queries decreased by 8.7% to 10,717:

• Consumer Protection queries decreased by 20.3% (2,280).
• Energy/Utilities Services decreased by 14.7% (2,098).

Government in Ireland queries increased by 25.1% to 6,113:

• MyGovID queries increased by 17.4% (1,984).
• Queries about Elections and Referenda also increased to 974 from 104, due to the General Election and Referendums on Family and Care held in 2024.

Death and Bereavement queries increased slightly by 2% to 5,657.

Environment queries also increased by 2.5% to 1,477.

Most Queried Entitlements

Of all queries received by CISs in 2024, over one quarter (28.2%) were related to ten specific entitlements, of which seven were social welfare entitlements, two related to housing, and one related to health. Of these top ten queries on specific payments or schemes, enquiries about the Medical Card again came out top of the list.

Table 3: Top 10 Most Queried Entitlements in 2024

Table 4: Top payments and schemes queries for each age category

Summary

With close to 800,000 queries in 2024, CISs continue to play an essential support role in Ireland. A large portion of the queries raised in 2024 follow previous trends, with Social Welfare still the category with the largest number of queries.

However, when compared with 2023, the data has also highlighted some emerging trends. A significant number of people are presenting to CISs with additional support needs, of which language is the most common. This is coupled with an increase in the number of callers who are from outside the EU. Together with the increase in the length of time people are spending in CISs, this shows an increased level of complexity in the cases CIS information workers are dealing with.

Click below for a more detailed profiling of CIS queries in 2024.

Query Categories 2024 (docx)
Query Categories 2024 (pdf)