asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he proposes to provide allowances to the many wifes in this country whose husbands have deserted them; and if, as they do not qualify for pensions of any kind, he will state what steps he proposes to take to deal sympathetically with the claims of such persons whose husbands cannot be located and who have failed to support them.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Allowances for Deserted Wives.
62.
Apart from whatever remedy she may have in law by recourse to the courts, a deserted wife who is in need may avail of the home assistance scheme. The introduction of any scheme of further assistance in such cases would involve new legislation which is not contemplated at present.
Does the Minister consider that some form of legislation is necessary to cover the many unfortunate cases that exist in the country? Is he aware that in a number of such cases the local authorities are very hesitant in granting home assistance because of the existence of the husband who has failed to shoulder his responsibilities and who cannot be located? Surely those are the cases for which there must be some form of legislation to ensure that as a result of the activities of a careless husband his wife and children will not be severely handicapped and have to suffer by his neglect?
These things arise in a number of ways and there is great difficulty at times. Deputy Andrews brought a deputation to me recently about this. It is difficult to establish which are genuine cases. We have had experiences in the past in which we went as far as the law would permit which turned out not to be very good experiences. We found we were wrong. The man turned up later.
After 32 years.
I admit that this problem exists, but it is not easy to get a simple solution for the overall number of cases presented to us each year. I would hope that it would be possible to find some solution to deal with established genuine cases.
Would the Minister be prepared to get the experts in his Department to compile the proper statistics as to the actual number of cases in the country, and to see if something can be done to deal with the most deserving cases?
That is the information I gave Deputy Andrews.