Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

We are dealing with the issue of habitual residence in a very narrow context but other schemes affected by habitual residence include the jobseeker's allowance, the non-contributory State pension, the blind person's pension, widow's and widower's pensions, guardian's payment, one-parent family allowance, carer's allowance and supplementary welfare allowance.

There is an issue at the root of all this and we wish to be as generous as we can on behalf of taxpayers but we cannot simply have no rules and regulations on how people come to Ireland and gain residency.

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