Vol. 394 No. 8
266 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social Welfare the specific recommendations in the report on the care for the Elderly which he will be implementing during the course of 1990 in order to honour the recent Government commitment to make care of the elderly a priority in 1990.
As far as social welfare services are concerned the report in question recommended that carers be entitled to claim social assistance in their own right and that such entitlement should replace the prescribed relatives allowance scheme. Under regulations which I made recently, the prescribed relatives allowance can now be paid direct to the carer rather than the pensioner. Any further improvements in this scheme would be a matter for consideration in a budgetary context.
