Mr. Pat Mellon:

I was at a meeting of another committee this morning. One of the issues that came up there was that of the male member of a couple who at 66 years of age had serious health issues and could not work. The only pension he could access was non-contributory, but because of his spouse's employment and income, he could not get anything. The suggestion was that if his spouse gave up work, he would be entitled to a non-contributory pension. It is discrimination in its simplest form. We want equality and all that and one of the issues is that means testing includes the income of a spouse, partner or cohabitant. That has to be looked at.