A 30-year-old woman has failed to persuade the High Court that she is entitled to back payments for unpaid child benefit for her childhood.
Romanian-born Elena Drutu, who moved to Ireland as a child, alleged her family experienced financial difficulties due to the lack of child benefit and that she had to take up part-time employment to contribute to family expenses, which negatively affected her studies.
In a ruling published on Friday, Ms Justice Marguerite Bolger held that Irish law provides for child benefit being limited to the person with whom a qualified child normally resides and is not conferred on the child.
Ms Drutu’s 2022 application for child benefit arrears was refused because she was not the qualified person to claim, the judge said. This basis is created and permitted by Irish law and does not contravene Ms Drutu’s EU rights, she added.
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Ms Justice Bolger said Ms Drutu’s father had been refused child benefit in respect of her several times during her childhood. Initially this was because he did not have a work permit, but later on he was told the application had to be made by her mother, who was refused the payment in 2007 and 2009 as it was asserted Ireland was not her habitual residence.
The family lived in Co Carlow, but the mother left in 2012 to move to Germany. Ms Drutu said she continues to live with her father and has had no contact with her mother since then, the judge said.
In 2021, her father applied for child benefit arrears but was again refused as the application should have been made by the mother. Ms Drutu then applied and was refused as she was not a qualified person to make an application.
Ms Justice Bolger said Ms Drutu’s lawyers argued a decision of the Court of Justice of the EU entitles the child of a migrant worker to directly invoke entitlement to a family benefit such as Irish child benefit.
The judge said the EU court has recognised that conditions for granting a family benefit remain a matter for national law. Here, she said, Ms Drutu’s rights were the same as any child in Irish law and her application for arrears was refused because she was not the qualified person to claim.
“This is nothing to do with her status as the child of migrant workers and the decision does not discriminate on grounds of her parents’ exercise of their right of free movement and is not contrary to EU law,” Ms Justice Bolger said.
She dismissed the application against the Minister for Social Protection, Ireland and the Attorney General, which were represented by Andrew Fitzpatrick SC and Francis Kieran.
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