Government restrictions on welfare benefits for non-Irish citizens are placing migrant workers at risk of poverty and homelessness, according to the Migrant Rights Centre.
The measures were introduced last year in response to Government fears that the accession of 10 new members to the EU on May 1st could lead to a significant number of their citizens coming here to draw welfare payments.
The Migrant Rights Centre says increasing numbers of foreign workers who lose their jobs are finding themselves without access to social assistance, despite having contributed to the State through their taxes.
"The practice is putting people's health and lives at risk, and is causing even further problems for the State at the end of the day," said Ms Siobhán O'Donoghue of the Migrant Rights Centre.
"In some cases we have people who have been working for several years and making tax and PRSI contributions. Yet when they lose their job, they find themselves on their own and on a downward spiral which can end up in homelessness," she said.
"Are we going to have to wait before a homeless migrant worker loses their leg from frostbite, as happened in the North recently, before something is done about this?".
Under the welfare restrictions, applicants must be able to satisfy a habitual residence condition. Generally, such applicants must have lived in the State for at least two years, worked here and have the intention to remain in the country to satisfy the habitual residence condition.
A spokesman for the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mr Brennan, said the question of whether a person met these criteria was typically decided by a Community Welfare Officer or health board official.
He said in practice welfare officers would take steps to ensure no one was made homeless and received some kind of assistance.
Ms O'Donoghue, however, said the Migrant Rights Centre was aware of cases where foreign workers, who had been working here for up to four years and had family in the State, were judged not to have met the habitual residence condition.
The centre is calling for a new approach to dealing with the migrant workers who find themselves in sudden need of State support.
"There is a way of preventing this and, at the same time, preventing the integrity of the welfare system. You could have emergency payments, or distinguish between people who have worked here for a period of time and those who haven't," she said.
"These are people we are trying to attract into the country to work. A bit of joined-up thinking would benefit everyone involved."
In a statement, the Department of Social and Family Affairs said decisions regarding the habitual residence condition could be appealed to an independent Social Welfare Appeals Office or, in the case of supplementary welfare allowance, to a health board appeals officer.
