I agree with my party colleague that given the Minister of State's position as a representative of a Border county, she will be more familiar with this issue than some in the House. Not that one would guess it from listening to me, but I also grew up in a Border town and I know that people who live along the Border do not recognise it in the same way as those who live elsewhere because they go back and forth across the Border all of the time. In response to a parliamentary question, I was told that there are only three people resident in the North who are in receipt of carer's benefit at this point. We are not talking about massive numbers here. There are no floodgates opening or anything like that coming down the line. This is also about the fact that the people taking on caring responsibilities are saving the State an absolute fortune. This woman is caring for her mother and then going home to where she lives, which is only up the road. I am interested in hearing what the Department is prepared to do about this. In our view, it is amenable to resolution by statutory instrument. I ask the Minister of State to request this of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, who is aware of this issue. As I understand it, there is no hostility towards resolving it; the question is whether we can. As it stands, people who have worked all of their lives and paid stamps are now falling foul of the habitual residency rule. It is very simple. For the purposes of habitual residency, the island should be regarded as one. I am not trying to make a massively political point but it would make sense to regard the island as one. However, there is also a need to resolve these individual cases as well as getting the resolution for us into the future.

Sentiment score: 0.17

Very briefly, to echo the sentiment expressed by my colleague, this impacts a number of social welfare payments but in real life the numbers are tiny. I sent in a parliamentary question about it. I did not expect the numbers would be big. I did not think they would be as low as three but that is where we are at. We are not talking about big numbers but these people are paying into a system. If this cannot be facilitated, then the mother does not get to be cared for by her daughter, which is her choice, and then someone is going to have to care for her. At the end of the day, a bill is coming one way or the other. It strikes me that the person themselves, the elderly person in this instance, has a right to chose their carer. The carer is available and the only crime that anyone has committed is living 3 miles or 4 miles up the road.

Sentiment score: -0.01

I am not getting into that.

Sentiment score: 0.00

She married a Fermanagh man now so that is where she is at. In all seriousness, it is something that will not take the Minister a long time. These are cases that are very real and very live now so I would appreciate if, when Deputy Smyth brings this back to the Minister, she could emphasise that we are talking about small numbers, statutory instruments, co-operation from the Opposition and possibly getting this resolved by Christmas if we could.

Sentiment score: 0.18