The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The main objective of the scheme is to make up the difference between a person's means and their needs. Where a person has access to resources, through the social welfare system or otherwise, the relevant legislation requires that this be taken into account in determining entitlement to supplementary welfare allowance.
From 10 April 2000, asylum seekers have been provided with full board accommodation, including meals and other services, under the direct provision system operated by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. In this situation, they receive a weekly allowance of €19.10 per adult and €9.60 per child to provide for personal requisites.
Asylum seekers who applied for asylum before 26 July 1999 but whose cases had not been decided and people who have been given permission to remain in Ireland on the basis of being the parent/s of Irish born children are entitled to seek employment. In addition, any person who has been through the asylum process and has been granted refugee status can also seek employment. If these people are unable to secure work, they will qualify for unemployment or other social assistance from my Department on the same basis as any Irish resident, subject to the normal eligibility conditions. Applications made after May 2004 are subject to the statutory habitual residence condition.
The executive has discretion, within the rules of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, to make an exceptional needs payment to any person, including an asylum seeker, on a once-off basis if he or she has a special need or expense which he or she is unable to meet from his or her own resources. Such payments typically relate to public transport costs for interviews, equipment for a child, small household items and so forth.
I am aware that there have been stories from time to time that asylum seekers and refugees are in receipt of special payments through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme for high cost items such as cars. These reports are without foundation; in so far as it is possible to identify the individual cases about which the allegations were made, no such payments are, or have ever been, made for that purpose through the scheme or through any other social welfare support system. More generally, no special grants or payments are issued under the scheme to any group of people on social or cultural grounds.
With regard to these stories, it is relevant to note that the majority of non-nationals currently residing in the State are not asylum seekers or refugees. They are mainly EU citizens or people from other parts of the world who have been granted work permits and who are in employment. There are also significant numbers of non-nationals who are studying in this country. Whether studying or working, they are people with their own financial resources to meet their own needs with regard to their living expenses, accommodation, car purchase and so forth without any recourse to the social welfare system.
Unfounded racist stories or taunts of the sort referred to by the Deputy in his question are always unacceptable. They serve only to hinder the development of mutual understanding and acceptance among the increasingly diverse range of people that comprise Irish society today.