A person who becomes unemployed in one member state should first claim unemployment benefit under the legislation of that State. If, after a minimum of four weeks, he is still unemployed and decides to seek employment in another member state he may, under the EC regulations, transfer his unemployment benefit to that State. He will then be able to claim benefit immediately on arrival in the State and may continue to receive it for up to 13 weeks, while he or she is seeking work.
Where a person is not receiving unemployment benefit before coming to Ireland, the EC Regulations provide that contributions paid in another member state can be taken into account for entitlement to unemployment benefit under Irish legislation. Before these contributions can be counted, however, the person must first become insured under Irish legislation by becoming employed here. It is because of this requirement that the person cannot be paid unemployment benefit on the basis of foreign insurance if the person concerned does not have at least one social insurance contribution in the country which is responsible for the payment of the unemployment benefit. This requirement is legislated for within the EC Regulations on social security and applies equally in every member state.
Unemployment benefit is the only benefit which has such a requirement. Sickness benefit under EC Regulations is paid by the country of last employment while pensions are paid by each State concerned.
The difficulties which this requirement can give rise to particularly in the case of persons who are returning to a member state from which they have emigrated and with which they have close family ties have been acknowledged in the Community.
I placed this specific issue on the agenda of the meeting of Social Affairs Ministers which I hosted during the Irish Presidency. The Ministers agreed that the Commission should give priority to bringing forward proposals for decision by the Council to meet this and other related problems.
The Commission services have indicated that they will bring forward proposals for consideration shortly.
Social assistance payments are not covered by the EC Regulations. Any person claiming these payments in any member state is subject to the national conditions which cover eligibility for such payments in the State concerned. A person who comes to Ireland and is not entitled to payment of unemployment benefit is entitled to claim unemployment assistance. To qualify for payment such person will have to satisfy the conditions for eligibility in the same way as all claimants and there are no special requirements in the scheme related to the person's nationality.
Supplementary welfare allowance is also available to any person resident in Ireland regardless of nationality, whose means are insufficient to meet their needs.