asked the Minister for Finance if he is now prepared to modify the present means test in respect of old age pensions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Means Test for Old Age Pensions.
I do not propose to take steps to modify the present means test in respect of old age pensions.
The Parliamentary Secretary will recall that the Minister for Finance in the last House indicated a certain sympathy towards certain types of pensioners who were in receipt of pension from industrial firms and in receipt of small pensions from trade unions. He indicated that he was prepared at that stage to approach sympathetically cases of that kind. May I say that the Minister for Industry and Commerce also referred at a later stage to the question of small pensions as far as railwaymen were concerned. Would the Parliamentary Secretary indicate that he is prepared to reconsider this question in the light of the sympathetic assurances given in the last House?
Sympathy has been shown to these particular classes of the community in the steps taken since 1941 to deal with old age pensioners and blind pensioners residing in county boroughs and, in more recent times, with certain types of old age pensioners residing in rural areas. I am not in a position to say that anything further can be done at this stage to deal with these particular classes.