Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is a long and complex amendment. I understand the regulations of 2016 are replacing the regulations of 2005. Is the Minister satisfied that the changes being made do not in any way diminish the right of the people concerned to claim social welfare payments? Section 246 of the Act, to which the Minister refers, makes it a condition of receiving social welfare payments that a person must be present in the State or another part of the common travel area which includes Great Britain, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, for a continuous period of at least two years. It is my experience that this condition is being interpreted very rigidly by social welfare officers. Many of the people concerned come here in circumstances where, even after two years, they are not able to provide telephone or other bills to prove that they are living here. I have come across cases of injustice arising directly from the fact that the condition is being interpreted very strictly.

The Minister is incorporating a new category. The permission applies to a person entering the State as part of a group of displaced persons following a decision of the European Council. Will the people in question be regarded as continuously resident from the time they arrive here or will they have to wait for a formal decision?