Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 26 Nov 1991

Vol. 413 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Termination of Free Telephone Rental Allowance.

Mr. Browne

(Carlow-Kilkenny): Tá mé buíoch díot gur thug tú seans dom anocht labhairt faoin bhfadhb seo. Having heard about the millions of pounds mentioned in the previous reply I feel embarrassed to mention to the Minister for Social Welfare that I am looking for a few measly hundreds of pounds only. Let me say to the Minister, as the new Minister for Social Welfare, that all new brooms sweep clean and I am quite sure the Minister will face into his Department sweeping all these archaic rules out of existence. There are many archaic rules and I would advise the Minister to catch them by the scruff of the neck and throw them out as soon as possible.

The case I speak about tonight concerns a Carlow man who, because of his bad health was awarded a free telephone rental. He has angina, arthritis and blood pressure, and each morning he has to put a patch on his chest to stabilise his system. He is a widower and he has an only child and while that child attended school each day he was, up to this, in a position to use the telephone if he needed medical attention.

However, for some strange reason, the Department of Social Welfare decided that when the daughter had reached the magic age of 15 there would be no need for him to get help. That is forgetting, of course, that the daughter is going to school each morning by bus at 8 o'clock and coming back at about 5 o'clock in the evening. He is on his own for more than one-third of every day. The daughter is not earning money but going to school, which all 15 year olds should do, and which is the least we can offer our children. While the legal age up to which a child must be in full-time education is 15, we cannot talk about legal standards at this stage. The age up to which children go to school is generally 18.

I would suggest to the Minister that he should raise that legal age to 18 to make it practical. This girl will be at school for the next three years and this man is deprived of the free rental because she is 15.

The numbers I am talking about are very few. The cost would be small and the relief would be huge in terms of taking the pressure and worry from people who are in this position. I would therefore appeal to the Minister to deal with this in a practical way and to please avoid telling me about archaic rules that he is stuck with. If the Minister must tell me about them let him tell me he will change them.

Minister for Social Welfare (Mr. Daly)

The person concerned, who is a widower, receives a retirement pension from my Department. This is paid at a weekly rate of £83.00 — £64.00 basic pension, £14,00 in respect of his dependent daughter and £5.00 fuel allowance during the winter months. He also qualifies for a free electricity allowance and a free travel pass. He was receiving free telephone rental from the time he became a widower in late 1990.

When his daughter reached 15 years of age in August 1991, his free telephone rental allowance had to be terminated in accordance with the scheme. The allowance was terminated with effect from 26 August 1991.

The free telephone rental scheme is intended to encourage people who are living alone to have a telephone in order to be able to summon help in an emergency. Under the conditions of that scheme, pensioners must be either living alone or living only with a dependent child under 15 years old, or living with people who are themselves permanently incapacitated. If pensioners are living with older dependent children or with an able-bodied adult, then there would normally be someone able and responsible in the house to go to seek help if required.

In particular, where there is a teenaged child living with the pensioner, it is not unreasonable to expect that a 15-year-old would be mature and responsible enough to get effective help should his or her pensioner parent require it. Of course, children in their teens are likely to be at school for part of each day. They would, however, normally be at home in the house at weekends and in the evening and night time, to get help if needed then.

For the Deputy's information, since he suggested that we should take these things by the scruff of the neck, Exchequer expenditure in 1991 on the free telephone rental scheme will be £13.96 million. By the end of October last, there were 94,400 people receiving an allowance under the scheme.

The scheme represents a very considerable commitment of Exchequer funds to meet an important social need. Given the scale of expenditure already being made to the scheme, I am sure that the Deputy will appreciate it is very difficult in times of scarce additional resources to develop schemes such as this one to meet every possible situation fully.

It will not be possible to make an exception to the rules of the scheme in the particular case raised by the Deputy without discriminating against other pensioners who might be in a similar situation. Any extension of the scheme to cover pensioners in these circumstances would have to be considered in the context of the budget. Again, I am sure the Deputy will understand that the Government are analysing the Estimates for 1992 very carefully. I cannot say whether in these difficult times it would be possible to make further concessions under that scheme. I will certainly keep the Deputy's views in mind and if it is possible to make any further extensions to that very worthwhile scheme we will certainly do it. However, I could not make a commitment here to do it, bearing in mind that the amount of money that is already committed to the scheme.