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A Lithuanian citizen who has lived here for the past 18 years has filed a legal challenge after her unemployment payment was stopped by the Covid pandemic when she was stranded in Lithuania and was unable to return to Ireland during the first lockdown.
Vilma Cekanaviciute’s mother had left for Lithuania for a two-week break in March this year, but when the blockade was imposed, her return flight was canceled and she was unable to return to Ireland until July.
Now he has gone to the Supreme Court in an effort to have his Covid payment restored and rolled back.
His is the first in a series of similar complaints about pandemic Covid unemployment pay that may be brought to court in the coming months.
Judge Garrett Simons today granted Ms. Cekanaviciute permission to initiate judicial review proceedings against the Minister of Social Protection.
On March 8 this year, Ms Cekanaviciute had traveled to Lithuania with her two-year-old daughter for two weeks. As he was receiving a single-parent family payment, he had informed the Department of Social Welfare of his travel plans.
While in Lithuania, the Covid-19 pandemic is claimed to have escalated significantly across Europe and on March 20 he was informed that his flight back to Ireland for March 27 was canceled. He was unable to return to Ireland until July 4, 2020, on one of the first flights to Dublin.
Ms Cekanaviciute had requested the Covid payment in early April and received it until mid-May, when it was suspended.
What is at stake in the case is whether physical presence in Ireland was a precondition for receiving payment from Covid and Ms Cekanaviciute maintains that it was not and has resided here for 18 years.
It is claimed that the fact that you were physically out of state after being stranded abroad by a global pandemic does not influence whether you were currently residing, living or living in Ireland.
The mere fact of leaving the state has no relation to the residence of the applicant or the place where he currently lives, it is further argued.
Vilma Cekanaviciute, Waterville, Blanchardstown, Dublin, in her judicial review process is seeking an order overturning the decision of the Minister of Social Protection on May 12, 2020, to stop her payment for pandemic Covid unemployment on the grounds that she did not was either a resident of Ireland or had left the state.
Furthermore, he requests an order overturning the June 2020 ministerial decision refusing to reinstate and roll back his payment and a statement that the determination that he was not a resident of Ireland and was not eligible for the Covid payment was illegal, irrational. and it was not supported by facts. You are also seeking an order that requires the Minister to determine your request for reinstatement and late payment.
In an affidavit in court, he said that when he traveled to Lithuania had he known that he would not be able to catch a flight back to Dublin, he would never have gone.
He said it was never published that he couldn’t leave the country and he thought he was operating within the rules at all times.
She thought that the Minister’s review of the suspension of Covid payments would have resolved the situation, as she considered what happened to her to be “clearly unfair”. He said that he did not fully understand the reasons why the payment had been stopped.
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