Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am not so convinced that would be wholly true. A small number are getting caught by very cruel cuts. Let us take the dependent adults on the contributory pension. Presumably, in 80% or 90% of the cases in which people were caught, it was the ordinary partner who earned the money, put it in joint accounts and got caught. If one knows the rules and all the intricacies of the system, one can avoid it quite easily, as the Minister knows, by putting it all into the earner's bank account.

However, people always advise sharing when one is in that arrangement where one works as a child rearer in the home and the other works outside of the home and that is the way the couple decide it. That is the way it was for many people who are coming to pension age now. The general advice would be that it is great to share everything and what is yours is mine and what is mine is yours, especially not to allow the income earner control everything and, therefore, we weaken ourselves down the road. A huge number of people is not caught, but people are sad when they are.

It is similar to parents leaving money to kids with disabilities. The Minister told me previously that 99% get the full payment of disability allowance. Small numbers get caught, but it can be very sad when it happens.