Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)

Comhghairdeas don Aire as an post a fuair sí. Tá súil agam go n-éireoidh go maith linn ar an ghnó rí-thábhachtach seo. More than 650 Irish citizens were refused social welfare payments last year on the grounds of the habitual residency condition. That figure was only for part of the year. In the Labour Party election manifesto, promises were made that the habitual residency condition rule would be reformed to facilitate returning emigrants. When and how will those reforms be brought about? What will the Government do in the interim for those 650 people? Many of them were made destitute by the current rule. Some of those excluded were Irish citizens who never emigrated, as they were from Belfast, Derry and other parts of the Six Counties. Why is there no mention whatsoever of the habitual residency condition in the programme for Government?

The Crosscare Migrant Project has encountered cases of young emigrants who had left Ireland 18 months ago, but who were told on returning that they do not satisfy the conditions. More and more Irish people are emigrating, but does the Minister understand that by failing to alter the habitual residency condition for those Irish emigrants, she is telling them to get out and stay out?

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