asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will arrange with the ESB that consumers who enjoy the free electricity allowance in one house will have the allowance extended to them, without a break, if they move to a new house and there is no change in their circumstances.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Electricity Allowance.
15.
Under existing arrangements with the Electricity Supply Board a person who is in receipt of a free electricity allowance and who changes his address has his allowance continued without a break, provided that he complies with the procedure necessary to establish that he continues to be entitled to the allowance. To do so he must, of course, notify the ESB promptly of the change of address and supply such particulars as the board requires to enable him to be registered as a consumer at the new address. He should at the same time notify my Department which will take the necessary steps to ascertain that he continues to fulfil the prescribed conditions for entitlement to the free electricity allowance.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware of the considerable correspondence between his Department and the St. Vincent de Paul organisation in Leixlip where many old age pensioners have been denied this right for some months? Does he not feel that with a little bending of the regulations or a little less red tape this allowance could be made retrospective and a great deal of hardship saved to these people?
I am not aware of what the Deputy said in regard to St. Vincent de Paul but I am aware that cases of this nature and cases in the general terms described by the Deputy are treated with the utmost consideration by the officers of the Department.
Seeing that I have at my disposal here a considerable file which may have become lost in the Department offices, if I bring the matter to his notice and give the Parliamentary Secretary the file and the information I have here, will he arrange to have it sympathetically considered?
When I said I was not aware of a particular file of correspondence, it does not necessarily mean that it is not in the Department. If the Deputy has any information which he wishes to convey to me, I shall be only too glad to receive it.