Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-27
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Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

Deputy Smyth is a representative of a Border constituency, the same as I am, so she will very much understand this particular issue. A constituent of mine called Majella contacted me. She was born in Leitrim and lived there practically all of her life. She started her career working in the health services. Then she married a man from Fermanagh and moved six miles up the road. She continued to cross the Border every day to work and worked all her life. Now her mother has become ill towards the end of her life and needs care. Majella got carer's benefit based on the stamps she had accumulated during her working life. However, after 104 weeks she was told to apply for the carer's allowance, which is not stamps based but assessed. When she applied she was refused because of the habitual residency condition as she does not live within the State. This is very unfair. It is an anomaly that comes up for a tiny number of people in certain circumstances who are living in the Border area. People in these circumstances are not travelling 50 or 100 miles to care for somebody. It is only people in a small corridor that this would affect. In that context, resolving this issue would not result in a big cost to the State. This needs to happen as quickly as possible.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-27/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:23+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-27