Hundreds of Irish people are being refused welfare benefits under restrictions introduced by the Government aimed at preventing "welfare tourism" by immigrants.
An internal Department of Social and Family Affairs review of the scheme, obtained by The Irish Times, shows that 880 Irish nationals have been refused benefits such as unemployment assistance, lone parent's allowance and the old age pension.
The restrictions have mainly affected returned Irish emigrants and other Irish nationals who have not been living here on a regular basis.
The habitual residency condition introduced by the Government in May 2004 removed the automatic right to social welfare benefits for EU citizens resident here. The restriction assumes a person is not habitually resident in the State if they have been living here for less than two years.
In total, some 34,500 benefit claims were examined by the department between May 2004 and May 2006 to determine whether they met residency condition requirements.
The majority of claims (77 per cent) were granted, while the remainder (23 per cent) were refused. The figures are broken down in the following way:
Irish applicants: of the 8,880 claims, some 880 were refused, a refusal rate of 10 per cent.
UK applicants: of the 4,257 claims, 483 were refused, an 11 per cent refusal rate.
Former EU accession state applicants: of the 5,059 claims from the 10 new EU members, 2,499 or 49 per cent had claims refused.
EU 13 (France, Germany, etc) applicants: of the 2,937 claims, 1,817 were refused, a 62 per cent refusal rate.
Rest of world applicants: of the 13,308 applicants, 2,406 were refused, a refusal rate of 18 per cent.
The number of claimants from the 10 former accession countries - such as Poland - represented just 2.5 per cent of the 200,000 former accession state nationals allocated Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers between May 2004 and May 2006.
Separately, The Irish Times understands that a Government briefing to the Cabinet late last year showed that former EU accession state nationals account for just 1 per cent of people on the live register.
The Migrant Rights Centre Ireland, which has been lobbying to have the habitual residency condition relaxed, said the figures showed that the rationale for the continued use of the restrictions were no longer valid.
The centre's director, Siobhán O'Donoghue, said migrant workers arrived in Ireland to work rather than try to claim welfare benefits. "At the very least migrant workers who experience workplace exploitation should be allowed access to social protection, irrespective of nationality, length of time in the country or legal status.
"In such cases emergency financial payments and accommodation are essential in situations of crisis where a person may be suddenly dismissed without receiving wages and at the same time lose his/her accommodation," Ms O'Donoghue said.
The internal review makes a number of recommendations, such as providing more training to staff and community welfare officers over the application of the residency condition.
It also says entitlement to some benefits should be clarified where there is an element of confusion over eligibility rules.
Ms O'Donoghue expressed concern that some migrant workers who were eligible for welfare benefits were being refused protection because of a lack of knowledge among social welfare staff.
