Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

I compliment the Deputy on his great work in this area. He does a great deal of work with our emigrants in the UK and elsewhere and he is genuine about this issue, like everybody else. The legal position is that it would not be possible under EU legislation to extend free travel to all Irish citizens in the UK because that would mean discriminating in favour of our own nationality. That remains the EU position, although I have asked for it to be re-examined. However, thanks to Members pushing the issue, I have had a number of discussions on whether it would be possible to extend the scheme to the 37,000 emigrants in the UK who are in receipt of an Irish contributory pension and the 3,000 elsewhere. I am waiting on an EU ruling in this regard but I noticed a reply to the Sinn Féin Member of the European Parliament recently, which indicated clearly it would be possible to do this. I cannot be definitive but I am confident that I will be able to extend free travel to those in receipt of Irish contributory pensions around the world. The European Commission should make a ruling on this in the next few weeks. If I can resolve that, I can return to the broader battle, but the legal advice is strong on it.

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