Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is true. If one reads some of the earlier speeches, including from some of the Minister's own colleagues which I followed closely, they outlined what is happening in the rest of Europe and in other countries that might be affected, but not as much as us, where legislation has been passed much sooner to give time to reflect and to debate it properly. There are only about 10 sitting days left until Brexit, or 29 March, as I understand it, and we are confronted with a Frankenstein piece of legislation, cobbled together by a large departmental team, covering everything from healthcare to child benefit, from education grants to insolvent companies, from electricity to cross-Border bus routes, and it is to be rushed through. There has been no time for public hearings or for detailed consultation with the various interests involved since the Bill has been published, and it is imperative we get it through by 29 March.

There are two parts to the Bill dealing with social welfare. The first deals with reciprocity of arrangements from the receipt of pensions and other social welfare benefits between the two States. That is important because there are currently 132,000 people in Ireland receiving a State pension from the United Kingdom, and the figure the other way is 28,000, most of whom live in Northern Ireland. The Government proposed to deal with this by amending the regulations in the various pieces of legislation to take into account the fact that the UK might be a third country after 29 March. I have various questions about these regulations but, as I understand it, I do not have to ask them because they will be subsumed by a convention that has been signed between the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and her UK counterpart, but which has not yet been ratified by the UK. I assume that, in the unlikely event that convention is not ratified by the UK by 29 March, this legislation will kick in as a temporary provision. I welcome the fact that the convention has been signed as it provides legal underpinning to the common travel area arrangements which have been around since 1924 and whose legal foundation has been questioned and is decidedly shaky. This provides legal underpinning to those arrangements. However, while the payment of State pensions and other social welfare benefits on each side of the Irish Sea will continue as before, what about private pensions? What about people in this State who are in receipt of private pensions from UK institutions, of whom there are quite a number. I understand there are some institutions which insist that in order to continue receipt of these pensions, individuals will be forced to open a sterling bank account. I am sure they would be very grateful for reassurance from the Government that they will not have to do that. It may require some sort of banking arrangement between Ireland and the UK. I would like to know the position on that.

It also appears the common travel area rights do not extend to the spouses or other family members of Irish people living in the UK. An official notice published by the UK's Brexit department last Friday stated:

The arrangements for existing close family members (who are not Irish citizens or British citizens) to remain in the UK with, or join EU citizens resident in the UK in future, are not provided for by the CTA arrangements but rather under the draft Withdrawal Agreement.

That means family members of Irish citizens who want to stay in the UK after Brexit or move there in future will be required to apply for status under the UK's controversial EU settlement scheme. I am puzzled as to why these people were not provided for when the Government was negotiating the convention. Not only are they not provided for, but as I read the convention on social security, particularly article 4(c), they seem to be specifically excluded. According to article 4(c) the convention "shall not apply to or affect rights and obligations arising under ... the UK-EU withdrawal agreement". Therefore, under the withdrawal agreement, these people will be still obliged to apply for the EU settlement scheme. I require clarification on that.

On the other part on social protection, namely, the protection of people in this country who are employees of a UK company that becomes insolvent, the legislation seems comprehensive, on the face of it. It recognises the definition of UK insolvency here. It provides for situations where insolvent employers do not make their PRSA or occupational pension contributions and provides for the sharing of information. We have not had time to examine this fully but I hope it is comprehensive.

If it is not, there will be the possibility of a grave injustice arising at some time in the future where an employee in this country of a UK-based company may be deprived of rights which he or she would have if he or she was working for an Irish company. There is no justification for that.

My party will not be opposing this legislation. Obviously, we recognise the necessity for it, but we hope that we will never see the day that it will have to be implemented.

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