Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to have a debate on social protection. At a time when we are closing hospitals and having to restrict very severely the amount of money we have to spend, my attention has been drawn to the fact that during the good times during which we needed many emigrants to help us to build the economy, we established a jobseeker's allowance and other allowances that were multiples of what can be earned elsewhere. When someone who has come from abroad and worked here and contributed to our economy returns home, he or she is still paid the jobseeker's allowance for a certain period of time. This is a multiple of what is paid in that country as it is based on the Irish rate and not on the rate of the person's home country. While we could have afforded this in the past I am not sure we can do so now. It may well be that we do not have an option. I understand there may be EU regulations which do not permit us to pay those who have returned home the rate of their own country.

I would welcome a discussion on this and other areas that need to be discussed. There was a time when we could be generous, and we were generous because we had the benefits of the workers from abroad. However, it could well be that we cannot quite afford to do it at a time when we are closing hospitals. I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Social Protection to come to the House for a wide-ranging debate on the amount of money we spend on social protection in various areas so we can ensure we are getting the best value for money.