Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 10 Nov 1998

Vol. 496 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Free Schemes.

Mr. Boylan

I apologise for not being present in the House on Thursday afternoon last for the Adjournment Debate. My absence was not intentional. I left the House before the notification arrived.

I raise this issue now because the country's finances are in a good state and it is time for us to consider people who do not enjoy the quality of life enjoyed by most of us. I am talking about people with a disability who need whatever benefits they can get to make life a little easier for them.

The free telephone rental allowance should be given to people with a disability, particularly those who receive disability benefit. As far as I am aware, disability benefit is not means tested but there is a condition in respect of the free telephone rental allowance. A telephone is vitally important to a person with a disability because he or she must be able to contact a relative or friend in an emergency.

The current position is that people with a disability who live with their spouses are entitled to the free telephone rental allowance, but if the spouse works outside the home they do not qualify. I am aware of a small family in which the recipient of the benefit has four children of school-going age. The mother has a part-time job which is necessary to bring in much needed income to help with household expenses. For that reason, the person with the disability is alone in the house from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. To all intents and purposes, that person is living alone and is in need of a telephone.

Another case with which I am familiar concerns an adult son living with his widowed mother. The mother has a part-time job which is necessary to bring in much-needed income to the household. Again, that person has been denied the free telephone rental allowance.

These cases are not widespread and we should show generosity when everybody else in the country is doing well. I ask the Minister to favourably consider these cases and extend the free telephone rental allowance to the category of people I have mentioned. We should show some generosity which is currently not being shown. We are rather stringent in respect of people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, spina bifida and other conditions. Some people were born with these conditions and they have struggled to make the most of their lives and contribute to their communities.

I hope the Minister of State's reply will be favourable to this request. It would be very much appreciated by me and many other people who are interested in this area.

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (Mr. Treacy)

The free telephone rental allowance is available to people living in the State, aged 66 or over, who are in receipt of a welfare type payment, and who are living alone or who otherwise satisfy this condition. This condition is not applied in the case of persons aged over 75 years who are in receipt of a qualifying payment. This allowance is also available to certain people with disabilities under that age who are in receipt of certain welfare type pensions. In addition, widows and widowers between the ages of 60 and 65, whose late spouses had been in receipt of the free schemes, retain that entitlement.

Persons under the age of 66 must be in receipt of one of the following qualifying payments from this Department: invalidity pension, blind person's pension, unemployability supplement or workmen's compensation with disablement pension for at least two months, disability allowance or a social security invalidity pension/benefit or equivalent payment for at least 12 months, from a country covered by EU regulations or from a country with which Ireland has a bilateral social security arrangement.

One of the qualifying conditions of the free telephone rental allowance is that the applicant must be living alone or with persons who would be incapable of obtaining help for them in an emergency. Those excepted under this condition include dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full-time education and/or a qualified adult under age 66 where the spouse/partner has a disability which is medically certified or a qualified adult aged 66 or over where the applicant or their spouse/partner has a disability which is medically certified and/or a person getting any of the above listed qualifying payments where the applicant or the person living with them has a disability which is medically certified and/or other disabled people who have a disability which is medically certified and/or a person providing the applicant, or another person living with them, with full-time care and attention where the applicant or the other person has a disability which is medically certified.

An additional change announced in the 1998 budget allows for people who are in receipt of invalidity pension, disability allowance and blind person's pension who transfer to certain other social welfare pensions — for example, widow's and widower's contributory pensions — to retain their entitlement to the free schemes. This measure extended the arrangement which allowed only invalidity pensioners who transferred either to retirement pension at age 65 or to widow's/widower's contributory pension at age 60 or over, to retain free schemes.

There are over 170,000 people in receipt of a free telephone rental allowance at an estimated cost of almost £30 million in 1998. Of this number, approximately 16,000 are in receipt of a disability type payment. The cost of extending this scheme to all people with disabilities, regardless of means and household composition, would involve a very large increase in expenditure. For example, the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities estimate that there are 360,000 people with a disability in the State. The estimated annual cost of paying a free telephone rental allowance for this number of people is in the region of £63 million. The free telephone rental allowance, as part of the free schemes, was originally designed to benefit mainly older people who were living alone and required additional assistance. The purpose of the allowance is to provide an element of protection and security in their homes for older people and people with disabilities to enable them to summon help in an emergency. However, over the years, additional categories of people have been included. It is proposed to undertake a fundamental review of the free schemes, commencing in early 1999, to assess whether the objectives of these schemes are being achieved in the most efficient and effective manner.

If the Deputy has a particular case in mind, the Minister will arrange to have it examined in my Department. Otherwise, the Deputy's proposal will be examined as part of the review process. The outcome of the review will be considered in a budgetary context.