Post
by Brigid from Ireland » Wed May 07, 2014 10:14 pm
There is a charity called 'safe home ireland'. Google them and send them an e-mail. Explain your position in the e-mail and that you need help to get home. They were set up by Martin McAleese and if you come home with their help you should have no problems with habitual residence, as the purpose of the charity is to get Irish citizens who emigrated and are now in poor circumstances home and for them to be automaticallly habitually resident when they get home, due to having needed the assistance of the charity to get back home. You might be a bit young as they usually work with older emigrants, but you can try.
Alternatively go to your nearest Irish embassy and declare yourself an Irish citizen stranded abroad without funds or employment - they will get you home and again this helps solve your habitual residence problem (assuming you have no job/funds).
Alternatively close your tenancy/sell your home, sell your car, furniture if any, close your bank accounts, ship some stuff home and keep paperwork as proof that you have done all of the above. Then get a letter from your primary and secondary school or a copy of your leaving cert as proof that you were habitually resident in Ireland as a child, and show the paperwork from selling house/closing bank... as proof that you have permanently closed your life in Canada and have returned home for good. Join some clubs when you get home (like the GAA) as proof that you are trying to re-establish a permanent home here. All these things help with habitual residence, it is not doing them that counts, is is keeping the paperwork as proof that you did these things.
It is also good if you can get a job offer from Ireland before you come home, so if you have a pal who could offer even a temporary job for a few weeks, that is also a help, as it means you came home on the promise of a job.
Don't count on getting unemployment money at first, so it is easier if parents/sibling can give house/food for several months, in case you have difficulty getting job/support. If you get a part time job, then you can apply for part time jobseekers to help with costs.
Re Education - do you already have a degree? If yes, you have used your 'free fees'. If no, then you can apply in normal manner and could be in uni next year. Some people get jobseekers for a period, then go on VTOS (basically get jobseekers to repeat the leaving cert) and then go from VTOS to Back to Education (basically get jobseekers for full duration of university degree, but not for summer holidays).
Basically you need to do a detailed study of your options - they are different for each person, because they require knowledge of things like if your parents can give food/accommodation for a time, or if you already have a degree, or if you have a wife and kids coming home also.
I have not studied any of the international social security agreements with Canada, but once you are home you could ask if the social security payments you made when working in Canada are transferable to Ireland, for the purpose of jobseekers benefit (benefit has no habitual residency requirement).
Just curious, how many weeks did you work in Ireland before you left, if any, including part time work as a student, so long as the prsi/tax was paid on it? This is relevant to your question.
BL
? Habitual residency rules equals no social welfare if you haven't lived here for 2 years. Not the answer you wanted to hear but you'll survive.