John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that. I ask the Minister to keep us updated.

At a previous meeting, I asked him about tax exemption limits for people aged 65 and over. I had not got my facts at that time and I said I would come back to the Minister on it. The gentleman who rings me, Liam, explained there is a particular cohort of people who are on the State contributory pension who may have, in his case, a pension from the local brewery. There is an exemption of up to €36,000 for married people or those in civil partnership. It is up to €18,000 for single or widowed people. The levels were higher than that but were then reduced. Since it has been reduced, even a small increase in the pension will drive Liam over the limit. I am sure there are just a small number of pensioners in that category.

I hope in the context of the budget that increasing the exemption might be looked at to take these people out of the bracket where they pay tax, thereby allowing them to benefit from the small increases they would get either from the State pension or their work pension. It is a small amount of money for the Government but a big amount of money for this group of people. It would make a difference to them. It is worthwhile considering all of these issues. The Minister might consider them to be minor issues in the broad scheme of things but they have an impact in a negative way on this cohort of pensioners. I want to bring this to the attention of the Minister and ask him to look at it.