Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 401: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will provide a breakdown nationally per Health Service Executive administrative area of the number of non-Irish national people claiming rent allowance; their county of origin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39033/10]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from another source.

The Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department of Social Protection by the Community Welfare Services division of the Health Service Executive.

With effect from May 2004 supplementary welfare allowance is subject to a statutory Habitual Residence Condition (HRC). All applicants regardless of nationality are required to be habitually resident in the state in order to qualify for rent supplement.

An EEA national who is engaged in genuine and effective employment in Ireland is regarded as a worker under EC law and is treated as habitually resident for the purpose of a rent supplement claim. In addition, the European Court of Justice has ruled that SWA, which includes rent supplement, is a social benefit under Article 7 of EC Regulation 1612/68. Nationals of other EEA countries who come and work in Ireland may be treated in the same way as Irish workers in determining entitlement to rent supplement and this EU law takes precedence over HRC. EEA nationals who are in Ireland but have not been employed here are subject to HRC review.

A number of different factors are taken into consideration in deciding whether a person satisfies the HRC, including, in particular, the following: 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. The onus is always on applicants to provide sufficient evidence to support their HRC status.

Asylum seekers who arrived in Ireland after May 2004 are not eligible for rent supplement. Asylum seekers who were receiving rent supplement prior to 1st May 2004 continue to receive these payments.

The information the Deputy has requested is set out in the following tabular statement.