Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

If any members are looking to contribute online, they might use the "raise hand" function. I am going to put a couple of questions that the Cathaoirleach asked me to raise. He corresponded with the Minister but was not able to be here today. I will relay his note now. The extension of the rent-a-room relief to individuals receiving social welfare who wish to rent out a spare room for a two-year period is welcome. Previously a rent-a-room scheme allowed a taxpayer to earn €14,000 per year tax free if they rented out a room. However, those on means-tested social welfare payments had that rent deducted from their payment. This change will particularly benefit older people who can now receive €269.23 in weekly rent for a room without impacting their non-contributory State pension or the spouse or adult dependant of a contributory pensioner. Due to ongoing delays in applying this relief to the means test for the medical card, which is still not in place as the legislation currently goes through the Oireachtas, older people have not been able to avail of the social welfare relief to date because they would lose their medical card. Essentially, the Cathaoirleach's question is whether this relief is going to track through to means testing of medical cards. That is another barrier to people getting involved. The Cathaoirleach also draws attention to the fact that, for older people, there are a lot of benefits that go along with having a younger person in the house. He would be anxious that any barrier preventing older people from being involved in the scheme would be removed.

The Cathaoirleach also has a question on the fair deal nursing home support scheme. A case was brought to his attention of an 83-year-old pensioner in County Roscommon following her husband's admission to long-term nursing home care. The pensioner in question does not have an entitlement to a contributory pension and lived on the occupational pension of her husband until he went into long-term care. Due to income from this pension, she was ineligible under the means test for the non-contributory State pension. After the husband's admission to long-term care, she must pay the nursing home €363 a week towards the husband's care but there is no deduction made under the social welfare means test for this payment, resulting in the 83-year-old woman exhausting all of the couple's savings to meet their day-to-day needs. The letter addresses this in more detail but I think Mr. Egan gets the gist of the question. There is no income disregard for the payment made for nursing home care. Those are the two questions the Cathaoirleach was looking for me to put.