Mary Flaherty
Question:173 Miss Flaherty asked the Minister for Agriculture and Food the reason long-term pensioners were not included in the free beef scheme this year; and if he will consider their inclusion in future schemes.
Written Answers. - Free Beef Scheme.
The conditions of the free beef scheme are reviewed each year and, in planning the 1989 measure, my primary concern was to ensure the widest and most equitable distribution of the available beef. I believe that the scheme achieved this objective and some 120,000 people have benefited compared with less than 50,000 in 1988.
The increased allocation of intervention beef which I succeeded in obtaining from the EC for the 1989 scheme made it possible to extend the scope of the measure. The most needy welfare categories were identified in consultation with the Department of Social Welfare and comprised:
(1) Hostels and day-centres providing meals for homeless people.
(2) Certain social welfare recipients i.e.
—recipients of long-term unemployment assistance and equivalent FÁS trainees
—recipients of long-term supplementary welfare allowance.
For 1990 I will of course review the categories covered by the scheme. The increase in the numbers eligible for the 1989 free beef scheme indicates the Government's clear commitment to expand the scheme to the maximum possible extent.