Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to be as clear as I can. Notwithstanding the anomalies the Senator thinks exist, the way in which habitual residency stands and is operated today, warts and all, is exactly how it will operate on 30 March. We have not changed it or deviated. What we have done is literally mirror exactly every single operation that occurs between Ireland and the United Kingdom and between the United Kingdom and Ireland today in the convention. Therefore, nothing will change in the way in which we administer the habitual residency clause, both in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It will be exactly the same. We have gone through every single scheme. I acknowledge I have probably continually focused on our pensioners and recipients of children's allowance because they are the largest numbers of people but there are other people on different schemes, which again will be exact mirror images. Whoever is entitled to be on a scheme today, whether one is in receipt of a payment in Ireland or in the United Kingdom, because of transfers of data between our countries and work practices and residency, the position on 30 March will be exactly as it has been, and that includes paternity and maternity benefits.

Parental leave is not on our Statute Book, and we cannot have a convention for something we might do in the future because I have no idea whether we will ever get around to passing legislation on parental leave, given the precariousness of matters at present. However, if and when the parental leave Bill is passed - please God, at the end of this year - we will then discuss extending the bilateral arrangements with the United Kingdom on that basis.

Again, the whole aim and our initial wish from many months ago is for the United Kingdom and Ireland to have an agreement that reflects the practices of the common travel arrangements that have been in place for donkey's years in our future relationship. That is what is in the convention. We will not effectively treat the United Kingdom as a third country because it is now a part of the new bilateral convention.

As for the GDPR, it is already stated in the convention that we will continue to share data. Both Ireland and the United Kingdom are adhering to the GDPR of the European Union to which both of us must adhere. That will not change on 30 March. What will also not change on 30 March is what Senator Higgins referred to when she spoke about employment standards. Ireland's laws will be Ireland's laws; the United Kingdom's laws will be the United Kingdom's laws. English companies coming over and working contractually in Ireland will continue to be obliged to work under our laws and, vice versa, if Irish companies go to the United Kingdom for contracts, they will continue to work under the United Kingdom's laws. In the main, our laws are exactly the same at present. We are probably about to adhere to and adopt Regulation 883/2004 on Friday, and the United Kingdom will still be very much a member of the European Union on Friday. When the United Kingdom leaves, therefore, both our regulations and our laws will be exactly the same. Someone would need to make a change to them for us to start deviating. I am not proposing in this legislation or in the convention to try to impose new regulations from an employment perspective on the United Kingdom's companies other than what already exists on the Statue Book in Ireland.