David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 423: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if persons who are granted temporary leave to remain on humanitarian grounds by the Department for Justice, Equality and Law Reform are classified as habitually resident by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3061/10]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Any person who makes a claim for jobseeker's allowance, domiciliary care allowance, child benefit, one parent family payment, disability allowance, State pension non-contributory, carer's allowance, widow's non-contributory, guardian's non-contributory payment, blind pension or supplementary welfare allowance must be habitually resident in the State.

Section 15 of the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2009, passed by this House on 15 December 2009, provided for an amendment to the habitual residence provisions to ensure that only those who have a legal right to reside in the State shall be regarded as habitually resident for the purposes of any claim for social welfare. This amendment states that a person who is awaiting a decision on their application for leave to remain shall not be regarded as habitually resident. It also states that a determination as to whether a person satisfies the habitual residence condition from the date of grant of leave to remain shall be determined in accordance with all the circumstances of the case, including in particular: (a) the length and continuity of residence in the State or in any other particular country; (b) the length and purpose of any absence from the State; (c) the nature and pattern of the person's employment; (d) the person's main centre of interest, and (e) the future intentions of the person concerned as they appear from all the circumstances.

In the experience of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, it has been found that in most cases of persons who have been granted leave to remain on humanitarian grounds sufficient evidence concerning these factors is readily available to show that they satisfy the habitual residence condition. However, cases do occur where such evidence is not immediately available to the Department and the normal investigation has to be made to determine where the person has been living during the period of their application for leave to remain, what they have been living on during this period, where their main centre of interest lies and what their future intentions are.