The European Commission has warned EU governments that any restrictions on access to social welfare and public services for citizens of the new member-states must be compatible with the principle of equal treatment for all EU citizens.
A spokeswoman for the acting Social Affairs Commissioner, Ms Margot Wallstrom, said that any new restrictions the Government introduces would have to apply to Irish nationals as well as citizens from all other 25 member-states.
"You can discriminate in a way by having a rule that you have to have lived in your country for a certain length of time but that would have to apply to citizens from all other EU member-states and to citizens of your own country who have left and come back," she said.
Citizens from the new member-states must have access to public services such as healthcare on the same basis as those from the present member-states, using such forms as the E-111 which guarantees access to treatment throughout the EU. Social insurance payments made by workers in their own country will have to be taken into account in calculating pensions and other benefits if they move to Ireland.
The spokeswoman pointed out that, like all EU citizens, citizens of the new member-states will have the right to live in any other member-state for a minimum of six months. If they have no visible means of support by then, they can be sent home.
She said the Commission had yet to receive full details of Britain's plans to restrict access to benefits, and that the Government had not consulted the Commission on its own plans. "It is cardinal, this issue of non-discrimination, so we will be keeping a very close eye on it."
