Understanding how decision-makers practice discretion in the context of the habitual residence condition in the Republic of Ireland

This paper seeks to gain a greater understanding of how decision-makers practice discretion in the context of the Habitual Residence Condition, an additional criterion for eligibility to social assistance payments in the Republic of Ireland. The paper identifies two approaches to using discretion: nomocratic and telocratic, with both largely emerging as a result of specific structural and cultural conditions that exist within the organisations concerned, and directly impacting the decision-making practices of public servants. Some decision-makers are found to be happy to make discretionary decisions, while others struggle, resist and protest against the deployment of discretion in the provision of social assistance, instead arguing for rigid rules that can be applied to all welfare applicants.