Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Deputy Penrose again pointed out a number of apparent anomalies. We are trying to iron out as many of them as possible. Almost 18 months ago I said the experience of Deputies, Senators and councillors — our public representatives — is a great treasure trove. I have taken careful note of every anomaly and proposal made by members of my parliamentary party and by others in this House. I have asked my officials to go through every one of those raised on Committee Stage, by members of my parliamentary party and in the corridors of the House to see if a policy lesson can be learned from those examples. There is no point trying to deal with a specific example. I will continue to audit those points to see if we can iron out those anomalies. I will not be able to iron out some of them but I will others.

I do not need an army of consultants because the best advice comes from our clinics and from the people we meet every day. I do not say that in a patronising way but that is the case. We should put the real life cases raised in the House, at committees, in party rooms and in the corridors of the House to the test in terms of policy. I give the Deputies that reassurance again because it is the best way to go. If I can tackle a range of issues brought to my attention by Deputies in a policy context and in a way which will make people's lives better and if we iron out the anomalies, that is the best contribution we can make and much better than any major reports presented to me in the course of the job.

Deputy Stanton referred to Spain in his example. The advice I have is that we would have to pay the family income supplement in that circumstance. Technically, it is a family benefit under EU Regulation 1408/71 along with the new child care allowance and child benefit. The person must be working, have an economic interest and be rooted here. If his or her family happens to be in Spain or somewhere else, he or she will qualify for the family income supplement. That is the effect of EU Regulation 1408/71. We are trying to establish the numbers in this area to track them. I do not have the numbers to hand but the child care and the child benefit numbers are not a cause of concern as they are not large. The last time I looked at the numbers, they did not greatly concern me as there is no sense that people are flocking here to get the rates to send the money back to other countries. That does not seem to be the case. We are being, and should continue to be, generous to people who come to our shores and we should integrate them, which we have a good chance of doing.

Deputy Ring pointed to something we all know. If one has other income on top of one's pension, it can cost one the fuel allowance. The Deputy asked that if the other income is small, perhaps it could be considered. That is something we can do. If the income is large, it is right one would not qualify for the fuel allowance.

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