Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The freedom to move and reside freely within the territory of the member states of the EU is a fundamental right guaranteed under the EU treaties to all citizens and this can bring great benefits to those who exercise those rights and to the countries to which they move. However, it is important that those availing of these freedoms do so for the right reasons and are not intent on abusing the welfare systems of other counties.

The right of residence afforded to citizens from other EU countries is not unconditional and is governed by the terms of the residence directive 2004/38. Under that directive, EU citizens from other countries have an unqualified right of residence for up to three months. With limited exceptions, during that initial period, there is no obligation on a member state to provide assistance to the person or their family. Thereafter, the right of residence of people who are not in employment or self-employment depends on them having sufficient resources for themselves and their family so as not to become an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system.

The judgment in the Dano case is very welcome as it clarifies the relationship between the equality provisions of the regulations on the co-ordination of social security systems and the right of residence under the residence directive. Ms Dano had argued that she was entitled to benefits on the basis the former. The court concluded that if non-active persons, who do not have a right of residence, could claim social assistance under the same conditions as nationals of the host member state, it would undermine an objective of the directive which is to prevent nationals of other member states from becoming an unreasonable burden on the social assistance system of the host member state.

Figures on the number of persons that the Senator refers to as "welfare tourists" claiming benefits here are not available though it is considered that the number involved is relatively small compared with the overall numbers claiming benefits. The majority of nationals from other member states who are claiming payments have worked here at some stage, paid taxes and PRSI, and are entitled to receive benefits when the need arises.

The Senator mentioned the United Kingdom and the measures it introduced to limit the number of people coming to reside there. As the Senator mentioned, UKIP was responding to those, but it has not been a major issue in Ireland.

While this matter needs to be monitored closely, we do not see any evidence of a real problem at present. However, the Senator is quite right to raise it at this stage as an early warning signal. He mentioned open borders. I can very much understand why the Senator raised this.

As the Senator may know, access to social assistance payments in Ireland is subject to a habitual residence condition, which means that those in receipt of such payments are considered to have established their centre of interest in Ireland and to have significant contacts with this country. As well as satisfying this condition, the person must also meet all other criteria for the particular scheme. For example, a person claiming jobseeker's allowance must be available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment.

The statistics which are available suggest that foreign nationals are not over-represented in the numbers claiming benefits, which broadly reflect the number of migrants in the overall population and the workforce. Apart from the waste of scarce resources, unjustified claiming of benefits brings the system of welfare co-ordination provided under EU regulations into disrepute. This not only has an impact on migrants who are genuinely claiming benefits here, but also on Irish citizens in a similar position in other member states. In this regard, the decision in the Dano case is an important milestone in clarifying EU law in this area and its implications are being considered by my Department to see if it can further assist our action to minimise the abuse of our social welfare system. The key point is that we have responsibility in all areas to ensure the integrity of the social welfare system is upheld and that we limit abuses where possible. I thank the Senator for raising this issue.