In the absence, Sir, of Deputy A. Byrne (Senior) I beg to move Motion No. 1:—
That Dáil Eireann is of opinion that the allowances to blind persons are totally inadequate, and requests the Government to introduce amending legislation that will permit the total payments from all sources to be increased.
I hope and believe that this motion will meet with unanimous support from all sides of the House, and that Deputies will accept its principle. It will not be necessary for me to elaborate the principle of the motion at great length, and I think it should only be necessary for me to state a few bald facts in connection with it. We are told that there are 7,000 registered blind, or partially blind, people in Éire, and it is reckoned, on good authority, that 75 per cent. of these people lose their sight after middle-life. Now, the position, in regard to the way in which we help them, is this: A blind person at 30 years of age receives a pension from the State of 10/- a week. In addition, the local authority concerned may grant a supplementary allowance up to not more than 6/- a week. If the local authority were to add to the 6/-, the State, under the present law, would have to reduce the blind pension to the extent of that increase. Accordingly, no matter what is done by the local authority, the total pension paid to these blind persons cannot be more than 16/-.
The means test applied in the case of blind persons, I understand, is the same as that applied in the case of old age pensioners—which, I think, amounts to £15 12s. 6d. of an annual income—in order to qualify for a pension of 10/-. In other words, under no circumstances can a blind person be in receipt of a total pension of more than 16/- per week. Now, when we consider the cost to-day of necessities, such as food, clothing and shelter, I think that every member of this House will realise immediately that that sum is totally inadequate, and that it is very unfair and unjust that we should not be able to do better for people who have been afflicted by blindness.
Very many blind persons are not able to get the necessary fresh air because they are perhaps not in a position to engage a guide to bring them out. Blind persons are in a special category in that, as I think everybody will agree, they need something more than the ordinary person needs. They need more fuel because they are much more confined to their homes than other people; they need something to help them to send their clothes and bedding to the laundry or to cleaners because they are not in a position to do their own cleaning. In addition, they often have to engage somebody to clean down the little dwelling. These three items are typical of the many little comforts to which blind persons are entitled and which we ought to see they get. My suggestion is that the law should be amended in order to ensure that there will be no means test and that every blind person will receive something from State funds to help him or her to overcome the handicap of blindness. I do not propose to elaborate on the matter of the means test, but it appears as if the Government are beginning to repent in that respect. When the Children's Allowances Bill came before us the week before last, we saw that the means test had been deliberately left out of it. The Government are coming to realise that a means test involves undesirable inquisitions and is a most revolting provision which nobody wants.
My second suggestion is that, having abolished the means test, there should be a disability pension of at least £1 per week—I am suggesting merely the minimum—to a single blind person and that proportionate sums should be granted in those cases in which there are wives and families. There is, I suppose, no sense in my arguing this matter any further. The bald fact is that they get no more than 16/- under the existing law. I do not propose to put forward any list of necessaries and their costs, because every member of the House knows full well that it just cannot be done on that amount. I suggest that the time has come when we should realise that persons afflicted with blindness should get much more adequate help from their more fortunate fellow-citizens.