Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

I am none the wiser as to whether the Minister expects the European Commission's opinion to prevail in this situation. Many of us on this side of the House warned that this is exactly what would happen when the regulations were introduced by his predecessor, Deputy Coughlan. We said that the regulations had too many inconsistencies. One of the groups that found themselves being discriminated against were Irish citizens returning to this country having been outside the State for more than two years. Despite what the Minister has just said about social insurance records, the initial effect of the regulations was to start a clock ticking again once the accession countries had joined the EU. This was despite the fact that many migrant workers had already been in the country with work permits and had built a social insurance record here.

I appeared on "Morning Ireland" with the previous Minister, Deputy Coughlan, who giggled her way through the situation with the programme's presenter. She did not outline the true facts about social welfare entitlements for people from many of these countries. In any case, if the system is not insurance-based, people entering our country will, for the first six months, be using their own country's social insurance record at the rates of payment that prevail there. Many such countries have very low social welfare rates. There is not much incentive for people to come here to live on the low social welfare rates that apply in their countries in this very high cost economy. In the event of the European Commission's view prevailing, as is likely, does the Minister anticipate additional costs in terms of departmental expenditure? What would be the extent of those costs?

Is the Minister prepared to offer an apology to Irish citizens who found themselves unnecessarily caught up in this net and being discriminated against on their return here, and to the group of workers from valid EU accession countries that found themselves in a social welfare grey area because of the unnecessary and ill-devised introduction of this set of regulations?

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