Vol. 442 No. 3
82 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will extend the free benefits presently applied to Irish citizens to recipients of social security from the United Kingdom who left Ireland many years ago to seek employment and have now returned home to retire; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The "free schemes" operated by my Department, such as the free electricity allowance, free natural gas allowance, free television licence allowance and free telephone rental allowance, are available only to people who are in receipt of a welfare type pension and who satisfy the living alone condition attached to those schemes. A social security retirement pension from the United Kingdom is a qualifying payment. Consequently, a person getting such a pension is entitled to the "free schemes" subject to satisfying the other conditions.
Any resident in the State aged 66 years or over is entitled to free travel under my Department's scheme.
