Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The prohibitions we are discussing are of long standing in respect of benefits. A qualified adult allowance cannot be paid if that adult is absent from the State but no such provision exists in respect of the working age assistance schemes, such as jobseeker’s allowance; the pre-retirement allowance; supplementary welfare allowance; disability allowance and farm assist where the qualified adult, normally the partner or the spouse of the main recipient of the assistance is not resident in the State or is in prison or otherwise detained in legal custody. The amendment speaks for itself. After I became Minister I made an arrangement with the Department of Justice and Equality such that where a person is sentenced to a term of imprisonment his or her personal public service, PPS, details are forwarded to the Department of Social Protection because the prison system or detention arrangements are providing for the person’s maintenance. We want to be very sure that people in receipt of payments are lawfully resident in the State. We felt that it was important to strengthen the legislation in this regard.

In cases of exceptional hardship there is recourse to the community welfare service, as Deputies know. It is very risky to pay money for extended periods to somebody who is resident abroad because notwithstanding the Deputy’s examples, the person may have just left the State and it is an additional risk to pay people abroad, except when they have notified us that they are leaving for short-term purposes, a holiday or family bereavement. That is understandable and is allowed for.