Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

Child benefit can be paid in respect of every child under the age of 16 years, who is ordinarily resident in the State. Payment can be extended to the nineteenth birthday if the child is in education, or incapable of self-support. The benefit is paid to the qualified person with whom the child resides and since 1 May 2004, the qualified person must satisfy the habitual residence condition.

The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the Irish labour market to workers from the ten new EU member states, without the transitional limitations that were imposed at that time by most of the other member states. The effect of the condition is that a person whose habitual residence is elsewhere is not paid social welfare payments on arrival in Ireland. EU regulations provide that EEA nationals who are migrant workers who are, that is, who have been employed or self-employed since coming to this country, or receiving Irish jobseeker's benefit, are entitled to payment of family benefits in respect of their families who reside in another member state. In these circumstances the family members are treated as if they are habitually resident in Ireland for the purpose of child benefit.

For the period from 1 May 2004 to 31 January 2007, the number of child benefit claims that required particular examination of the habitual residence condition was 16,092. Of these, only 1,557, less than 10% were disallowed. Those who are refused child benefit are mainly persons whose claim to asylum has not yet been decided, who do not have a work permit or who have only a minimal attachment to the workforce in Ireland.

I am satisfied that the habitual residence condition is achieving its intended purpose, allowing access to our social welfare schemes to persons who are genuinely and lawfully making Ireland their habitual residence, while preventing unwarranted access by persons who have little or no connection with the State.

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