asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that 950 recipients of small amounts from the Dublin Corporation blind pensions scheme have for the past six months been denied the benefits of the issue of a voucher for goods to the value of 1/3 each, and whether he will reconcile this course of action with the statement made on behalf of the Minister for Finance in the Dáil on the 24th March last to the effect that no account would be taken of benefits in kind, such as food or fuel, and that the corporation could, if they wished, increase the blind pensioners' benefits in kind.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Blind Pensions Scheme.
Mr. Byrne
The proposal of the Corporation of Dublin to issue food vouchers to blind persons under the Dublin County Borough scheme for the welfare of the blind was put forward without due consideration of the fact that persons in receipt of State blind pensions and their dependents are entitled to receive, and are in fact receiving, food vouchers under the scheme administered by the Department of Industry and Commerce. No adequate reasons were advanced by the corporation to warrant the further allowances (unspecified) which they proposed to give, and the Minister was obliged to withhold sanction to the corporation's proposal in so far as it would lead to a duplication of food allowances with the State scheme already in force. The decision, therefore, applied only to blind persons assisted by the corporation who were actually in receipt of State blind pensions and entitled to receive the food allowances provided by the State. No objection was raised to the proposal of the corporation to grant food voucher allowances to other cases of blind persons where the means and circumstances of the persons warranted the adoption of that course. The decision did not conflict with the statement made on behalf of the Minister for Finance in the Dáil on the 29th March last. The issuing of food vouchers to persons by the central and the local authority would only lead to abuse of these allowances.
Mr. Byrne
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the Minister acting for the Department on that day said in this House that Deputy Byrne must have been misinformed, and that I asked him whether he was sure that he himself had not been misinformed? Is not the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the corporation granted a voucher value 1/3 to 1,000 blind pensioners, and that the Government said they had no objection to its being given in kind? Is he not aware that shortly afterwards they withdrew that authority, or at least would not sanction the payment, and that at the present moment only 50 out of those 1,000 people are getting the benefit of that voucher which the corporation proposed to give? Can he say why— the Minister having stated in this House that the corporation could give the value of the voucher in kind— another Department contradicts the Order?
The corporation can give the voucher in kind in respect of blind pensioners who are not in receipt of a State blind pension. In the case of State blind pensioners, under the Department of Industry and Commerce food voucher scheme these pensioners are already in receipt of food vouchers.
Mr. Byrne
That means that you are depriving them of the benefit of the voucher which the corporation proposed to give.
If the Deputy desires to ask a supplementary question he should do so at once.