asked the Minister for Social Welfare why the EEC Regulations allowing Irish people returning from England to claim benefit on the basis of their United Kingdom insurance record require that they must work here for a time before claiming benefit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Benefit for Migrant Workers.
38.
The requirement that a person returning from England must work here for a period before claiming unemployment benefit arises from the provisions of the EEC Regulations on the social security of migrant workers which require that such persons must first become subject to Irish social insurance before they can claim benefit in this country.
Once the person concerned becomes subject to Irish social insurance, by becoming insurably employed here for some period no matter how short, the regulations provide that his previous social insurance in the United Kingdom or any other member state may be aggregated with his Irish insurance for the purposes of his claim to benefit.
The position I have described normally applies throughout the Community to any worker who moves from one member state to another and who claims unemployment benefit.
The purpose of this, I understand, is to ensure that liability for benefit will not fall on the social insurance funds of a State to which the claimant may never have contributed.
The problem created for individuals by the circumstances outlined in the question is among the matters currently being dealt with by an EEC working party which is examining the unemployment benefit provisions of the regulations. It will be some time before the result of their deliberations is known.
Does the same situation apply to persons wishing to claim disability benefit?
Yes.
Would the Minister consider that that would be unjust in view of the fact that people who may become sick in England would wish to come home to their relatives for the duration of their illness and that if they are unable to claim disability benefit here they are put into great hardship and are forced to remain in England where they may have nobody to look after them?
I will make sure that the working party examines that aspect.
Has the Minister a view on the matter himself?
I have a humanitarian view about all these matters.