Irish push exemption to UK welfare reduction at EU summit

SUZANNE LYNCH The Government will attempt to use the common travel area to exempt Irish citizens working in the UK from a British proposal to reduce welfare payments to EU migrants.

Discussions will focus on Protocol 20 of the EU Treaty, which recognises the common travel area that predates both the UK and Ireland’s entries into the Common Market.

The treaty states: "The UK and Ireland may continue to make arrangements between themselves relating to the movement of persons between their territories. Nothing in Articles 26 and 77 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in any other provision of that Treaty or of the Treaty on European Union or in any measure adopted under them, shall affect any such arrangements."

The Government will argue that the common travel area is an expression of the web of arrangements between the UK and the State on everything from social welfare to voting.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said yesterday that the Government would continue to make their views known about the unique status of Irish citizens living in Britain to the British Government.

Mr Kenny held a bilateral discussion with prime minister David Cameron on Friday evening before the final EU summit dinner, at which Britain's renegotiation bid took centre stage.

In response to a question in the House of Commons from SDLP MP Mark Durkan earlier this month, Mr Cameron suggested that he was open to exempting Irish citizens from new social welfare arrangements for other EU citizens.

“I seem to recall from conversations I had with the Taoiseach that there are particular arrangements for the common travel area,” Mr Cameron said.

Based on agreements

Although the common travel area has been in existence since 1923 and is recognised in the EU Treaty, it is based on administrative agreements between Britain and Ireland rather than legislation.

However, as a result of the common travel area, Irish nationals have a special status under British nationality law and British nationals have a special status under Irish immigration law.

Social welfare arrangements between Ireland and the UK have been governed by a succession of bilateral agreements since the early 1960s.