Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

One does not have discretion in reciprocal arrangements but, in some cases, people administer their systems differently. As I said earlier, it is always good for us to know how people administer systems. Reciprocal arrangements are applied across Europe and regulation 1408/71 has been around for all those years.

With regard to the figure, the Department of Social and Family Affairs states that currently there are about 1,800 child benefit claims, made in respect of approximately 4,000 children under the age of 18 by EU nationals with children resident in other member states. Assuming that one quarter of those children are under the age of six, the additional annual costs for such children will be approximately €1 million. I would like to see what other countries do in reciprocal arrangements but in health, where we received €400 million last year, we should not start to close off arrangements. Perhaps people will interpret it as being generous or assume we do not have these arrangements but we must remember that Irish people, under this very arrangement, were beneficiaries for many years.

Deputy Kenny raised the issue of vouched arrangements. I do not think much of such arrangements, quite frankly. If I was the Deputy——

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