Inside and Outside - EU Enlargement Restrictions

international | eu | news report Wednesday March 03, 2004 22:05 by Fergus newsforthedeaf at yahoo dot com

2nd March - Minister for Social & Family Affairs Mary Coughlin, Announces Restrictions On Access to Social Welfare
http://www.welfare.ie/press/pr04/pr020304.html

“Yes, well one of the parameters and prerogatives of introducing any type of changes, that once you do it, it must be for EVERYONE and this would include all EU citizens and Irish citizens,
and I’m satisfied that the new changes that I’m introducing
...will be satisfied under EU law because they are going to be eh… eh…available to all people in the EU."
-Mary Coughlin

Background
Recently the government has started using a new vocabulary to describe people -

ACTIVE = workers who pay tax.
INACTIVE = unemployed and people who work but don’t pay tax (housework, rearing children, black economy etc…)



With regard to social welfare

The ACTIVE are entitled to BENEFIT. (“stamps”)
The INACTIVE are entitled to ASSISTANCE (“the dole”)



Social Welfare Payments in Ireland can be divided broadly into three categories:

ACTIVE :
1. When a person works in Ireland part of the tax they pay is PRSI (Pay-Related Social Insurance).This ‘contribution’ ensures that if that person losses their job they are then entitled to unemployment BENEFIT for up to 15 months.(commonly known as “stamps”)

INACTIVE :
2. Is given depending on passing a means test, these payments are “non-contributary” (= non-PRSI) and it’s known as unemployment ASSISTANCE. (fondly referred to as me “dole”)

INACTIVE :
3. Universal Services such as Child Benefit which do not depend on PRSI or a means test.





Here’s my perspective -

From what I can see the govt. [business/ EU] is attempting to cut back the INACTIVE types of social welfare payments, leaving only the ACTIVE payments.

I'm basing this on how business interests in the guise of the European Employment Taskforce have discretely lobbied the Irish govt.

This Taskforce is lobbying to "mobilise support for the reform in states"..."to tailor employment and social policy to the needs of business."

A manifestation of this was at the 'Making Work Pay' Galway EU meeting back in January.

The evidence is not in your face - its turgid, official, discrete and "boring" -but it's there.
12th Jan. - Key EU Priority Will Be Addressed This Week in Galway.
http://www.welfare.ie/press/pr04/pr120104.html
"Issues such as access to childcare or the implementation of benefit eligibility criteria... these factors should be fully taken into account."
Prevention and Activation
"the impact of the tax and benefit systems in many member states continues to provide serious disincentives..."
http://www.entemp.ie/press04/20040113a.htm



By the way I also think the “controversy” that usually accompanies discussions about immigration is being used to blur the issues.
It also silence's dissent to more easily push through cutbacks.

I don't think it's a question of "greed".
I think it's a question of either the entitlement to "safety nets" for everybody in society
or its the path that leads to Morecambe Bay.




Regarding the following interview extract

The perspective of the RTE interviewer seems to be that to discriminate against other EU citizens in terms of social welfare is illegal – and it is under ‘current’ EU law.


However, what I don’t think the RTE interviewer realises is that the Ministers new rules will ‘from now on’ also equally apply to Irish people – in particular those on unemployment ASSISTANCE + CHILD BENEFIT.
This way she’s not discriminating -everybody will equally suffer the cutback.


I've added some comments in [ ] that highlight this possibility.



Wed. 3rd March ’04.
‘Morning Ireland’ RTE Radio 1.
>RTE interviews "Minister Coughlin".

>EU unity is one thing; talk of the free movement of peoples and goods is all very well but Ireland has become the last of the existing EU members to translate the rhetoric of enlargement to a rather less generous reality.

>The Ministers announcements will apply not just to people from the 10 states who are to join the EU in May but to all Europeans.

>Do the measures announced yesterday pass the test of the Irish constitutional law and of European law?

“Yes, well one of the parameters and prerogatives of introducing any type of changes, that once you do it, it must be for EVERYONE and this would include all EU citizens and Irish citizens,
and I’m satisfied that the new changes that I’m introducing:
habitual residence
requirement for new applicants, eh…for services, eh…more than likely after the 1st of May, eh…will be satisfied under EU law because they are going to be eh… eh…available [!] to all people in the EU.



>And do you have explicit advice from the Attorney General to say that this will pass muster in Brussels and in the courts here if necessary?

“Well naturally I have spoken and had a consultation with the Attorney General and all members of the Cabinet…
[changing the subject]
...you must have habitual residency requirement in order to be entitled to
social ASSISTANCE, and that is a
new concept
in order to be entitled to social assistance – which is means-tested payments and CHILD BENEFITS.



>Can we take it that the Attorney General has said that he is as sure as he can be that these measures will pass muster in the courts here or in Brussels if necessary?

“Yes, we’re satisfied that the parameters eh…that we have set out [not the EU ?] that we would eh…in fact be able to introduce these measures…”



>The obvious difficulty, is that you are withdrawing rights that, for example citizens from all existing member states here at present. Now, you can see the possibility of a legal case there if nothing else?

“No, what we’re saying is this,
[theoretically]
this has always been the situation: people cannot be a burden IN the state in this country, in other words,
[theoretically]
these INACTIVE people, were never entitled to social ASSISTANCE in the first place [?]
[Following this theory]
we are now emphasising this issue with a habitual residence requirement.
We are also,
from this day forward
progressing on the issue.
So anyone who had an entitlement now this minute prior to the implementation eh…will not be effected in any way.”

“People for example, if someone is in receipt of a payment from my Dept., presently, they will not be effected by the habitual residency requirement.”



~[To translate: the Minister is saying that if you are already in receipt of unemployment ASSISTANCE, then this new rule will not effect you.
However, the new rule will mean that new applicants for unemployment ASSISTANCE,
everybody - Irish, EU and non-EU citizens
will from now on have to pass this new, habitual residence test.]





RTE>Yes, but another citizen from [Europe], say a French person wouldn’t get those benefits?

“Absolutely”



>So that is a change in the legal position of citizens of the other 14 EU states at present?

“But as a Minister, I am entitled to change my social welfare scheme, as long as I do it for absolutely everyone in the EU, and that is what I am doing.”

[Unemployment BENEFIT remains the same. Unemployment ASSISTANCE has been changed]


>Could Irish emigrants, returning to this country, or their children be effected in any way by this measure?

“More than likely not eh…[IF they are ] people who are working…
they take with them the contributions in their social insurance from one country to another.[BENEFIT]
Others they will eh…have to be determined as having habitual residence…”



>”More than likely Irish people won’t be affected?”

[With this new rule]
“Not everyone in the state is entitled to a means-tested payment [ASSISTANCE] either, so they also have to work within [these latest] existing parameters of eligibility criteria for a eh… social assistance scheme or CHILD BENEFIT.

This is only a requirement for social welfare assistance schemes,
and anyone who has attributed a contributory known as a PRSI (‘the stamp’) those who have attributed a contribution will be entitled to the contribution [unemployment BENEFIT] regardless of where in the EU they have worked or in any country that we have a bi-lateral agreement [UK, US etc].
ENDS



Tomorrow Ms.Coughlin is off to Brussels -she's a member of the Employment, Social Policy, Health & Consumer Affairs Council.

They will be discussing "social protection" and like a model neo-liberal pupil she can report her latest "announcement".

But there's more work to be done before the "beautiful night".
- the business of "Lisbon" - reforms for the enlarged Union.

All in preparation for the big Spring European Council meeting.

The Economic Summit on March 25-26.


Time to synchronise on the streets.

Of all those that will remain outside the Fortress.