RETURNING EMIGRANTS are being denied social welfare because residency rules are being applied too tightly, according to Fine Gael.

Party social protection spokesman Michael Ring says Irish people are being refused their jobseeker’s benefit or carer’s allowance because they emigrated in search of work, and thus are considered the equivalent of immigrants.

The habitual residency condition, which does not set down a specific requirement for the amount of time a recipient needs to have lived in Ireland, was the reason that 738 Irish nationals were denied social welfare payments in 2009.

985 Irish people fell foul of the rule in 2008, with 373 refusals in 2007 and 480 in 2006.

Ring said that Irish people were being refused support as a “crude cost-saving measure” and said that some people who had left the country as recently as 18 months ago were being denied payments.

The rules were introduced by the government in 2004 in an attempt to safeguard the welfare system from abuse by EU accession countries after ten new member states joined the Union in 2004.

The complaints follow the concerns of Enda Egan, chief executive of the Carers’ Association, who said last month he was worried about Irish people returning home to act as carers but being denied the appropriate allowance.