Mr. Pat Mellon:

The Deputy mentioned housing. Housing is a big issue and it is now an intergenerational one. There is another trick now in that adult children who want to get on the housing ladder may put pressure on parents with savings, stating that if those parents did not have those savings they would avoid the means test, thereby encouraging a transfer that the parents might not be overly anxious to make. The money gives the parents little security.

We recently encountered a very unfortunate case. A lady contacted us who had spent her entire life looking after a dependent child with special needs. The dependant passed away in adulthood and the lady, who was non-contributory, discovered at 66 that she had no pension. Her husband's pension meant she was not allowed one.

Her comment to me was that she had spent all her life saving money to the State by minding her adult son but that now she was an appendage of her husband. As her final comment, she said that shower up in the Dáil wanted to take her out of the Constitution. What can you say?