I move:
That Dáil Éireann being conscious of the grave hardships being suffered by widows because of the quite inadequate social welfare services available to them and their orphan children, calls on the Government to take immediate steps to provide a comprehensive social welfare code for widows and their families so that their standard of living will not be lowered by the death of family breadwinners.
We who signed this motion perfectly understand that the State cannot be expected to provide lavishly for everyone. We recognise fully that funds are not unlimited and that budgetary consideration cannot be ignored. However, we also recognise that many of the 126,000 widows with their families in this country are living at starvation level. There is an urgent need that their case be investigated fully.
I have no intention of going into details about the grief and loneliness that is unfortunately the lot of Irish widows. Undoubtedly it is hard on them when they lose the breadwinner of their family, but very often they have young families to rear and the loneliness and the hardship is not helped by the benefits given to them under the social welfare code. When a man dies and leaves a widow with five or six children we immediately have a great deal of sympathy for that family. Very often in those cases the funeral is a very big one and sympathy is displayed all round. Unfortunately for the widow and her children this sympathy does not last long and they have to face a hard, stiff world when the funeral is over, depending on the entirely inadequate benefits the State provides.
I want to refer to the poverty and the agonising pressures these people must undergo. Under the present code a widow with eight young children— and this is not uncommon—is given an allowance of 22s per person per week. Is it possible in these days of spiralling costs to exist on 22s per week or 3s 2d per day? Everybody in this House and in the community will undoubtedly come up with the same answer, that it is certainly not possible to live on that allowance. The pity for those people is that we are all allowing that situation to continue. We are all part of the community that allows it.
We in the Fine Gael Party have put down this motion so that we might do something to ease the appalling hardships that these people suffer. I do not wish to overstate the case here but wish merely to put the facts clearly and plainly before the Minister so that not only would he be convinced but that he would be able to convince the Government and particularly the Minister for Finance of the hard struggle of this section of our people for survival.
In regard to the non-contributory widow's pension, a widow who is childless and who has no income receives only £4 5s per week. If she earns more than £4 15s she will get no pension at all. It does not do any credit to the Government or the country to ask an unfortunate person to live on such a miserable pittance. If that widow has children she has an allowance of 15s per week for each child. Having regard to the fact that childhood in this case extends to the age of 18 years, can anyone tell me how a person is expected to live on that 15s a week? This is expected to cover all their expenses. I do not see how it can be done. Only God knows how it is done.
Then in regard to the non-contributory pension, there is also this anomaly of the means test, so that if the widow with eight children to whom I referred earlier earns over £9 per week she gets no pension. This is the most appalling aspect of our social welfare code. When she tries to supplement the assistance given by the State to provide a reasonable living standard for herself and her dependants she is penalised in this way. The first step is to have this penal provision abolished from the social welfare code.
If we look at this another way it should be easy for any Minister for Social Welfare to make a case to his colleague for a vast improvement in this allowance. Is it not true to say that if one of these children were put into an institution—and it is easy to imagine several reasons why the children in such circumstances should be put into an institution—it would cost the State over £8 a week?
We should give serious thought to this problem, and that is why I raise it in this House in a calm, cool and collected way without blaming the Minister or the Government or anyone in the House. We are all to blame for allowing this state of affairs to continue. As well as Members of this House, each person in the community must share a certain amount of responsibility for not having insisted many years ago that this should be improved. I suppose the only reason that the people have not so insisted is that they did not bother to stop and think. I must confess that it was only after I had been asked to act as spokesman for this party in matters relating to social welfare that I took any personal interest in those problems. We discussed this matter within Fine Gael and it was decided that we, as a party, would support benefits that we believe to be long overdue to this unfortunate section of our community. That is why this motion is on the Order Paper.
Many widows who qualify for contributory pensions have young families. They are not, therefore, in a position to take up work but the pensions they receive are inadequate by any standards. Another anomaly that should be removed from the social welfare code is that a widow who is in receipt of a contributory widow's pension but who goes to work even on a part-time basis has her pension added to her income for tax assessment purposes. The sooner that provision is deleted from the social welfare code, the better for everyone. Yet another anomaly exists in regard to widows drawing contributory widow's pensions in that if these widows go to work and stamp a card, they qualify for only half sickness and other benefits.
In reply to a parliamentary question some weeks ago with regard to improving the plight of widows, the Minister for Social Welfare gave what I believe was a near record in so far as the length of the reply was concerned. This was a long and monotonous recital of what the Government have done and we got the hackneyed information that there is a limit to the public purse. We were told that not only have pensions kept pace with the cost of living but that they are ahead of it. It is naive to suggest that widows and orphans are getting enough money on which to exist.
Widows are the most deprived section of the community and because they are so deprived, their children also are. The social welfare code as it applies to them is morally unjust and that is why we are calling for a comprehensive code that will allow for the fair and just treatment of that section of our community. Recently an association of widows was formed and, possibly, it is that association that has directed the minds of people all over the country to the hardships that many widows must endure. They are conducting their campaign in a responsible, democratic and intelligent manner. The Government as well as Fine Gael and Labour must listen to them and the legislation must be changed so that widows can live in some kind of frugal comfort in their own country.
There are other Deputies who wish to speak on this motion. Therefore, I shall not detain the House any longer except to say to the Minister in conclusion that if when the Budget is introduced in a month's time, the Minister is able to point to a particular sum of money in that Budget for the benefit of widows, there is no one in this House or, indeed, in the country who would grudge one penny of that money to this very deserving section of the community.
However, the matter should not rest there. Having known the present Minister for a number of years, I believe him to be very sympathetic in this matter and I appeal to him, having succeeded in getting increased benefits in the Budget for widows, to introduce, in the not too distant future, a comprehensive social welfare code that we can all discuss and which, when agreed upon, will ensure that widows and their dependent children will no longer have to endure the hardships that they must endure today.
In recent times, it is difficult enough for a mother and father together to rear a family but it is very difficult indeed for a mother to do so on her own. I hope that this problem will be tackled, not in a political way, but in a way that will best serve the interests of widows and their children.