Ms Karen McHugh:

I shall respond to a number of points raised by members. One cannot get a PPS number unless one lives in the country although there are ways around the situation. Not everyone who left the country has a PPS number. One can get a PPS number if one had one before leaving. It is possible for members of Safe Home Ireland, with our age cohort, to apply for and receive a PPS number.

Another issue is the habitual residence condition, HRC. We argue for resuming residency using the HRC. Many people are affected by the HRC. If one worked on the clause to resume residency and one can prove previous residency one can work around the matter. The situation is a lot better than it was. I guarantee members that it was practically impossible to work with the HRC but the situation has improved.

We receive many queries from family members who want to return home for a number of months to care for a relative. They are entitled to zero assistance regardless of their situation and whether they own a property abroad. They are not entitled to carer's allowance or any support when they return. Therefore, people find it impossible to return home to provide care. The barrier could easily be addressed.

I support the provision of voting rights. I worked in Doras Luimní for many years. When I was there we hosted the Latvian Embassy who supported the Latvian community here to vote in their home country. Providing the option is not rocket science.

Senator Ó Clochartaigh mentioned people with more complex needs. The fair deal scheme has posed a challenge. We worked with a person who lived in a south London borough but care was provided by a north London borough. We worked with that person so that the local authority could fund the person's return here until the fair deal scheme kicked in. The fair deal scheme is administered by the HSE. Admission to the scheme takes a long time to negotiate although times have improved. It is impossible for somebody with nursing or health care needs to return to Ireland if he or she so wishes. The person to whom I referred was someone we worked with in order to bring them home. The person had hoped to live for some years. Unfortunately, the person died in England and never had the chance to spend their last months in Mayo. We supported the family to bring the person's body home. Unfortunately, people continue to return home dead rather than alive.

The interdepartmental committee on the Irish abroad is now called the diaspora affairs committee. Last November I gave a presentation to the committee and I have not heard anything from it since. I shall chase up the matter because we raised many issues, including barriers, challenges and the many opportunities. We have not received any feedback whatsoever.

In terms of the challenge of dealing with various Departments, we have experienced many challenges when trying to discuss issues with various Departments. For example, applying for social housing when somebody has a tiny bit of savings. The decision is discretionary because one local authority will take account of savings while another will not. There is no standard procedure. We are afraid to ask too many questions in case a precedent is set. Let us say someone has savings worth €10,000 or €20,000. We might get a straight answer to one of our questions but then the answer may affect many other issues. There is a huge discrepancy. Savings can sometimes work in one's favour but in most cases they have the opposite effect.

Administrative delays is a huge problem. We have written to many Ministers and Departments seeking information and clarity on issues. We generally get the standard acknowledgement letter thanking us for our correspondence and stating they will be in contact. We write again, email or whatever. With a few Departments we have had to lodge five or six challenges. We have not been given answers to our queries so we will table a few parliamentary questions. People cannot return home because there is no clarity.

I have answered all of the questions that I possibly could and I shall not go into any more detail unless there is something else that members wish to raise.