John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee. Theirs is an excellent piece of work and long overdue. It is an issue in respect of which I get people coming to my constituency offices expressing concern and frustration at how their cases are being handled and in many ways stymied. This is all reflected in the experiences highlighted in Crosscare's submission. Cases similar to all these have come through my constituency offices.

Another issue that has presented itself, albeit not in huge numbers, is the breakdown of relationships whereby one party has had to return home. This has presented itself as a huge challenge. People try to access various information, whether bank statements or information on property they may have been renting or may own. Some deciding officers really do not know what to do and essentially put a red line through it and force that person then to go through a lengthy appeal process. At the same time, there is no referral to community welfare officers or anything like that. It is a real problem. However, the witnesses highlight in their submission that all of the 12 cases they have represented that have gone to appeal have been overturned. This in itself sets off alarm bells that many deciding officers' interpretation in adjudicating on these cases is really not at the level it should be. In many cases they probably do not have the knowledge or the know-how. I see this even with disability allowance payments and other areas. The easy option is just to put a red line through it and let the applicant then go through a lengthy appeal process. The fact that these 12 cases which the witnesses represented were all successful just highlights this.

The recommendations the witnesses have put forward are all common sense and very basic, and I agree with every one of them. This committee has heard evidence on exceptional needs payments and community welfare officers and the huge levels of discretion they have in offices right across the State. This is posing problems. There does not seem to be one set of criteria from which they all work. There are huge anomalies and issues here in that one community welfare officer will grant something and another will not, and the two could be identical cases.

I welcome the report. As I said, they are all basic recommendations, and it is something we as a committee need to look at. There is a big push to try to get people back home, but there are problems actually doing so, which this report highlights.

There are problems which make it difficult to come home, and this highlights it. We need to cut through the red tape and make it easier for people to come home.

An applicant must show that he or she has a strong connection to Ireland. How does one go about showing that one has such a connection?