Vol. 452 No. 5
16 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social Welfare if EU citizens have the right to live and claim benefits in this country whether they are seeking work or not; and if his attention has been drawn to a recent High Court judgement in the United Kingdom which ruled against the existence of such a right. [7410/95]
The right of residence of EU citizens in this country is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Justice. My officials have been in touch with officials in the Department of Justice who will communicate directly with the Deputy on this matter.
With reference to the right of EU citizens who are legally resident here to claim benefits in this country, the Treaty of Rome prohibits any discrimination on the grounds of nationality or based on nationality between workers of the member states as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of work and employment. A distinction is drawn, however, in EU legislation and in the decisions of the European Court of Justice between workers and job-seekers. The court, particularly, has held that equality of treatment in relation to "social and tax advantages" is applicable only to workers. It would appear from this that under EU legislation, equality of treatment in relation to certain social advantages, which are generally taken to mean social assistance, does not apply to retired persons or job-seekers.
The social security benefits for migrants are dealt with under EU Regulation No. 1408/71.
With regard to domestic legislation. claims by non-nationals for social welfare payments are determined in accordance with the same statutory conditions as claims by Irish nationals. For example, in the case of a claim for unemployment assistance, the non-national concerned must be unemployed, must be both available for and actively seeking work and must satisfy the relevant means test.
In relation to the reference to a particular judgment of the High Court in the United Kingdom the case to which the Deputy refers may have been the one which arose from a challenge in the UK to the provisions of the "Habitual Residence Test" introduced by the UK Department of Social Security. However, the scope of that legislation does not extend to Irish nationals.
