I have a number of reasons for raising this matter on the Adjournment. A number of weeks ago I attended a funeral in the northern part of my constituency. Recently I met a son of the woman who died who thanked me for attending the funeral. As well as the death of his mother, what upset him most was the fact that he had an elder brother who went to England over 40 years ago and could not be contacted when his mother died. The woman who was elderly died suddenly and the family made every effort to contact their brother. Last year, I was involved with Mayo County Council in relation to the case of a woman living in Camden Town who was dying from cancer. The woman's sister lived in another part of County Mayo and I made every effort to bring that woman back to Mayo. We found it very difficult to obtain accommodation for the woman and eventually her sister took her. She was here only four weeks when she died.
Approximately one year ago I was speaking to a garda who asked me about a family in a certain part of my town. The Garda Síochána received a phone call about a woman who was dying in a hospital in England. This woman had not been home to Ireland for over 60 years. At the time there was some dispute at home with her parents after which she left and never returned to this country. Within 24 hours of her family being notified they were at her dying bed in England. Over the years the family tried to make contact with her but did not know how to go about it. They did not know who could assist them.
Recently Mr. John Neary came to my clinic in Castlebar. He is now trying to set up some kind of agency whereby he could contact people's relatives in Britain. However, if this man is to set up a semi-voluntary agency he should be entitled to grant aid for equipment, advertising and so on. It is a reasonable request from this man who is prepared to set up this agency. I am sure other voluntary organisations are prepared to do likewise.
The House will be aware that Irish people are the largest ethnic group in Britain with the highest death rate. Most Irish emigrants who left in the thirties and forties lived in rented accommodation and worked hard to send home money. When this State was sinking in the 1930s and 1940s, what kept it alive, particularly the west, was the pound sterling coming from Britain. Many people forget this nowadays. These people who worked in menial jobs in hotels and on build ing sites did not think about when they would not be able to work. They did not think about their pensions or what would happen to them when they got older. Many of them can now be found in cardboard cities throughout Britain. These people are being buried by the State in Britain even though their families here would be pleased to assist them if they knew how to contact them.
Given that our economy is doing so well, we owe it to these people who helped their families and who may be ashamed to say they did not make it, to do something for them. In every walk of life not everyone makes it. There will always be those who worked abroad and did not make it. These are the people we should target and bring home to many parts of rural Ireland. We should try to get them into nice accommodation they can afford in the last years of their lives where they will have friends to assist them. If they have no family to help them, at least we should look after our own because they did a good job for us when they were able to work.
I intend to put down a question to the Minister for Finance in the coming weeks in relation to what English pensions are now coming into the country. In many parts of my constituency more English pensions than Irish pensions are being paid to people who worked abroad. Now that times are good, I ask the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs not to forget those who left this country and perhaps did not do so well. We should not be ashamed to assist them and bring home to this country.
