Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I am sure Deputy Boyle would agree that we want to be as decent and honourable towards people who come to our shores as we possibly can be. Our current regulations are among the most liberal in the world, and certainly in terms of the European Union we have one of the more liberally interpreted regimes of any of our colleague countries. We must strike a balance between being decent, humane and supportive of people from the accession states and other countries who come to us for various reasons while at the same time discouraging any form of international welfare tourism.

If Deputy Boyle was on this side of the House he would take the view that we must strike a balance. It is not just a question of two years, four or five other criteria also apply. One is entitled to welfare here if one meets the five conditions that relate to one's centre of interest. If one can demonstrate that one's centre of interest is Ireland then the two-year rule does not necessarily apply. We have been increasingly generous towards people coming from the accession states, especially in regard to child benefit. A total of 150,000 people have come from the accession states in the first 15 months of the operation of that scheme.

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