I welcome the report prepared by the ESRI for the National Council on Ageing and Older People, which was made available last November. It covers the period from 1987-97 and, therefore, provides an informative, historical analysis for policymakers. As the report points out, in income terms the position of older people disimproved over the ten year period covered. This is why, on taking office, the Government set ambitious goals to secure the future of our older people.
An Action Programme for the Millennium set a target old age pension rate of £100 by 2000. We are well on the way to achieving this, with record increases in pension rates over the last three budgets. In 1997 the maximum rate of old age contributory pension, at £78 per week, equated to 28% of average industrial earnings. From next month, at £96 per week, it will equate to over 30%, which is working towards the 34% recommendation of the Pensions Board in its report Securing Retirement Income.
In last year's review of the programme for Government, the Government went further and committed itself to the early achievement of the £100 commitment and, furthermore, extended it to all social welfare old age pensions by 2002. That includes non-contributory old age pensions. In addition, over the lifetime of this Government, all old age pensions will increase in line with average industrial earnings.
I have provided that from October this year entitlement to the free schemes will be extended to all people over 75 years of age regardless of household income or composition. In this regard, I am pleased to inform Deputies that the review of the free schemes is being published by the Policy Institute today and I will launch it later this evening. I have arranged that a copy of the review will be made available to Members of both Houses this afternoon. I will examine the review in detail in the context of future budgetary policy.
The Government identified in An Action Programme for the Millennium the need to review medical card eligibility for the elderly and large families and has decided that the income guidelines for entitlement to medical cards for people age 70 and over should be doubled.
Additional information.The income guidelines for those aged 70 to 79 and 80 years and over, which were already higher than the normal guidelines, increased by one third in 1999. This improvement, which is being introduced over a three-year period, began on 1 March 1999, the second stage of the process was implemented on 1 March this year and the third in March 2001.
Under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness, the National Anti-Poverty Strategy will be updated and the underlying methodology reviewed and revised where appropriate. In particular, new targets will be considered under the themes of older people, women's poverty, child poverty, health and housing-accommodation. This process will be completed during the first 18 months of the programme. In addition, the issue of relative income poverty will be reviewed by a working group to be established to examine bench-marking and indexation issues.