asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state whether officers of his Department have had discussions recently with officers from the British Ministry of Pensions in connection with recipients of British pensions resident in this country; and if, as a result of such discussions, he will consider introducing legislation to provide for an easement in the means test provisions so that these recipients may qualify for the old age pension to which their age and residence in this country entitle them.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - British Pensioners: Means Test.
There have been no recent discussions of the nature indicated in the question, and it is not proposed to introduce legislation on the lines suggested.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary not aware that many citizens of this country in civilian occupations here were forced to leave this country on the change-over in 1922, have since followed civilian careers in other countries and have come back here to spend their declining years, where they spend the pensions earned abroad and does the Parliamentary Secretary contend that it is right that these moneys, paid from outside sources, should be included in the assessment of means applicable to old age pensioners?
I have nothing to add to the answer I gave the Deputy. The question is a very involved one. To open the matter for one section would mean that it would have to be opened to the whole community. The sum involved in social services is £30,000,000, about one-third of the Revenue.
I contend that it is not necessary to open it for the whole community but to open it to those in receipt of pensions from outside this country, who are in a special category altogether.
If the Deputy applies that to people with revenue from outside, he will have to apply it to the struggling small farmer with a valuation of £10.