Vol. 499 No. 5
102 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the considerable increase in rates for cable television by a company (details supplied) in recent years; if his attention has further been drawn to the hardship the matter is causing to many old age pensioners; and if he will introduce a system of partial grant assistance to pensioners or those over a specific age. [3138/99]
The free TV licence scheme is available to people aged 66 or over who are in receipt of a welfare type payment and who are either living alone or who otherwise satisfy this condition. Certain people with disabilities under that age who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments also qualify. In addition, widows/widowers between the ages of 60 and 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free TV licence scheme retain their entitlement.
More than 218,000 people qualified for this scheme in 1998 at an annual cost of over £15.3 million.
The range of the free schemes currently available does not include assistance towards the cost of cable television or other forms of deflected television systems. This would involve additional expenditure which could only be considered in a budgetary context.
