Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for having to leave to attend another meeting. I thank our guests for all their work. I realise that my colleagues have asked a lot of questions and I ask our guests to feel free to point out if I ask one which has already been posed. I will refer to the minutes. The Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, has done a great deal of work in the review. I refer to the implementation of the recommendations. I have dealt with things like driving licences with the Irish ambassador to Canada. A lot of it is on our own end. The answer from the Canadian and Irish Governments was that each province in Canada issues its own licence but we do not deal with bodies at sub-national level. That was our excuse for not dealing with it, albeit eventually it was addressed. However, it was being done state by state, which is a lot of work. The Government and its embassies must do that practical work of making deals with, for example, Ottawa and Newfoundland to move those issues on.

Whereas EU citizens moving to Ireland who have partners who are not EU citizens can bring them here, the case is different for an Irish person moving from outside the EU into Ireland with a non-EU partner. What is the impediment to simply extending that cover? There are a lot of silver bullets in relation to what the witnesses are talking about. I refer to that cover whereby they would get the same rights as EU citizens and the six-month waiting period to which Mr. King referred regarding an automatic entitlement to work which means one is not stuck neither getting social welfare nor being entitled to work. What is the Minister's response as to why that has not changed? Does it require legislation? Usually, it does not and only requires a ministerial order. Someone has to write up a statutory instrument to extend to the partners of returning Irish citizens the same entitlement to work in Ireland as applies to the non-EU citizen spouses of EU citizens who come here.

Has the Minister reverted on the reasons that has not happened?