asked the Taoiseach what is the estimated weekly sum needed by (a) an old person over 70 years, (b) a widow with four children, and (c) a husband and wife with four children in order to allow for food consumption at modern European nutritional needs as well as to pay for clothes, rent and other essential incidental expenses (medical, etc.).
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Food Consumption: Nutritional Standards.
6.
The information requested by the Deputy is not available. Surveys of individual dietaries normally express "needs" in units of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc., which may in theory be obtained from many different combinations of foods and are in practice provided by different types of diets in various countries. It is not, therefore, possible to fix and cost specific food consumption requirements for the groups in question in this country. As regards the other items (clothes, rent, etc.), mentioned by the Deputy, one cannot say, apart from a conventional and wholly arbitrary assessment, what level of expenditure on them is "essential".
Would the Taoiseach not agree with me that, even if those figures are not available, the allowances paid to old people and the people mentioned in these categories are grossly inadequate?
That is an entirely separate matter.