asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he is aware that a home assistance officer in County Donegal (name supplied) refused to give a voucher for food to a family in need; and the action, if any, he proposes to take in such cases.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Issue of Food Vouchers.
135.
The applicant for home assistance referred to in the question is a married woman who is in receipt of disability benefit at the rate of £6.55 weekly and whose husband is in receipt of unemployment assistance at the rate of £14.95 weekly including increases for his wife and three dependent children, and I understand that home assistance was refused on grounds of means.
Payment of home assistance in cases of need is, of course, the statutory responsibility of the relevant public assistance authority and I am expressly precluded by statute from directing the giving of home assistance to any individual.