Returned Irish emigrants still denied social welfare in Ireland

Posted on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:41 PM

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Irish citizens are still being refused social welfare in Ireland if they are returning from abroad.

In 2009, 738 citizens, many of whom were returned emigrants, were refused such payments as disability allowance, carers allowance, jobseekers' benefit and even the old-age pension, because they had not lived in the State for the two years prior to the claim.

Immigration centers in the U.S. have long warned of the unintended consequences of the so-called habitual residency requirements which they said would unfairly exclude Irish citizens from social welfare.

If I remember rightly, the requirement for "habitual residence" was introduced on May 1, 2004 after a referendum on the issue aimed at preventing what the tabloids called "welfare tourism."

At the time, Mary Coughlan, the minister in charge of the portfolio pooh-poohed fears that Irish people would be left out.

“I expect that the majority of returning Irish nationals will meet the ‘habitual residence’ condition due to their family connections . . . It is difficult to envisage circumstances where a returning Irish national would not meet this condition,” she said.

However, since 2004, a total of 2,496 Irish people have not met the conditions and have been denied State assistance.

This is no small concern. For instance, what happens when Irish people need to move home suddenly? And what happens to people like myself who paid taxes in Ireland before they left?

The stated intention at the time was to cut down on welfare fraud.

But, as Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin told the Irish Times the result was overkill.

“The Government is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The result is a denial of desperately-needed benefits to people who have committed no fraud at all,” he said.

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MaryM232 | Nov 22, 2011, 04:53 PM EST

Tsk, tsk, tsk.. the Irish welfare spongers left Ireland to sponge off US taxpayers, and now that they are going back to the Irish swill pot, they're getting denied welfare benefits there. I have zero sympathy. The Irish have ripped off US citizen taxpayers, and US workers, and they didn't give a fig about the pain they inflicted, now it's the Irish's turn to reap the karma they sewed.

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bryanob | Dec 14, 2010, 10:33 AM EST

It is wrong that our own citizens, regardlesss of how long they have been out of Ireland, are not entitled to benefits when they return. It is also wrong for SF's self-righteous Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin to be allowed condemn other people when he himself defrauded social welfare by falsely claiming benefits. He also ridicules our banks yet he himself was once a senior banking official who I've no doubt readily grabbed any bonus he could get his greedy hands on. It seems it is a case of 'do as I say not as I do' with SF.

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catherinaa | Jul 06, 2010, 06:40 PM EDT

im an irish citizen i left ireland 20 years ago go married in the uk and had kids i got divorced etc but now i want to return to ireland and live cos i have all my family there but i find it bad that us irish citizen have to apply for Habitual Residency in our own country just to get help while we look for work etc they give poles etc more money to help them it just feels like us irish are being run out of our own country..im terrified to return to ireland now with my 3 kids in case i wont get any help there while i look for a job i dont want to live in state benifit in ireland i just would like some help while i get employment there but have been told if i fail the Habitual Residency i wont get no help at all and my kids will be left starving there

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plasticpaddy | Feb 01, 2010, 08:57 PM EST

No thanks, I hope my government lets the 'illegals' remain, legally to pay taxes and stay true to the Irish welcoming nature, not the continued replication of hostility against ones brethren.

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MAGHNUS | Jan 24, 2010, 08:05 AM EST

Easy, get rid of all those illegal immigrants and give the welfare that rightly belongs to the Irish Native back to those who need it. Why must everybody make everything so politically complicated?

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ChrisButler9999 | Jan 21, 2010, 04:09 PM EST

Irish Civil Servants have been habitually stealing from Social Welfare Recipients since 1998 when they got the use of opinions. Irish Civil Servants have been elevated to level of authority to be gods when their opinions go unchallenged in law, which usually in contradiction to the evidence. Judges, Garda etc who get the pay rises make no attempt to uphold the law and protect people by law.

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