Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)

That demonstrates how ignorant the Deputy is of the facts. Some of these people might be sick, have Alzheimer's disease, be in full-time care or have a neighbour looking after them and they are asking the State for very little other than a non-contributory pension. In such cases they might be able to save a few euros. Old people have always been good at planning for the rainy day and always put away a few pounds for it no matter how bad things were. One must remember that there were many bad days in this country and these are the very people who saw out those bad days. They helped to build up the State and it is wrong at this stage of their life for the Minister and his Department to target their families when they have just €16,000 left at the end of their days and seek to draw back €10,000. The matter will have to be examined.

I wrote to the Minister during the week about a case involving a person with a disability. Some of the Minister's staff are very good, some are excellent and others are not so good, which is the way it works in all parts of society. In every job there is the good, the bad and the ugly. In this respect, the Department of Social and Family Affairs is no different to any other. A man in receipt of disability benefit, who cannot read or write and is a member of the Travelling community contacted me. A social welfare officer had paid him a visit because he had seen him on the previous Sunday with his two sons selling a few flags at a football match and the official suspended his payment.

That kind of behaviour is not acceptable to me. It is not acceptable that a person who cannot read or write would be placed under that pressure and forced to go to the health board the following day to seek community welfare allowance. I am speaking from memory since the Minister has the details in the letter. However, I understand that the man's mother died when she was 30 years old and he reared 13 members of his family. The man's father and one of his brothers committed suicide, there having been a family history of depression. This man cried in my office a fortnight ago because of the manner in which he was treated.

I attended an appeal recently, the details of which I will not reveal in the House but of which I will inform the Minister privately. It is time some of his officials were taken to task. There are some excellent officials in some of the offices throughout the State, but some are not so excellent and it is time Members of this House stood up and represented the people who elected them by stating that officials should not have treated people in the manner in which they have been treated.

There seems to be an attitude in the Department of Social and Family Affairs that officials should take whatever they can from people. I do not know whether they are being rewarded for this activity or not, in regard to which I have tabled parliamentary questions recently. Some officials were being rewarded for their suggestions for saving money for the Department of Social and Family Affairs. There is nothing wrong with that as long as the money is not being taken from the poor, the weak, the illiterate or the sick. I have written to the Minister in regard to the case to which I referred and I want him to investigate the matter. If he does not, I will raise the matter in the House on the Adjournment and on the Order of Business. The Ceann Comhairle will rule me out of order but I will raise the issue anyway. I will highlight the issue and show the media what is happening in this country. It should not happen. I tabled a parliamentary question on the matter again today in regard to which the officials have stated that they are waiting for information. How can one use information about a person selling a few flags at a football match? Surely to God we are not that bad.

There is an anomaly in the pensions legislation, which the Government will have to examine. The House will remember that a scheme was introduced a few years ago for farmers and other self-employed people whereby they could pay contributions and claim a contributory pension. If they had ten years' worth of stamps they could qualify for a full contributory pension and part of the pension was also available to people who had not served the full time, although they were not permitted to buy into the system when they should have been.

There was also a category of people who availed of the scheme at that time and who had a full ten years' worth of stamps from paying their contribution. This category of people, because they worked in the 1930s, 40s or the 1970s and 80s and at some stage broke their PRSI contributions to the State, received less than a quarter or a half of the contributory pension because the contributions which were used to calculate the pension varied over the 20 or 30 years involved. On the other hand, some people who only made the ten years' worth of contributions were able to draw down a full contributory pension. I acknowledge that it is costly to address this problem but this must be dealt with.

This affects a minimal number of people. Everyone in the system is paying his or her contributions and will have their ten years' worth of stamps. The people to whom I refer must be looked after quickly to be fair to them. I have been made aware of a number of such cases. I ask the Minister and his Department to start examining these anomalies; it is only right. If the Minister deals with these issues, he can put out the spin and I will be the first person to rise in this House and congratulate him for doing something that is right and justified. This must be done because these people worked and paid some, although not all, of their contributions. However, if they had paid no contributions at all, they would be better off because they would have received their full contributory pension. I ask the Minister to examine this issue.

The Minister also needs to talk to the Minister for Finance because I can see a major difficulty arising in the next few years. In this week's edition of The Western People, the editor, Mr.Laffey, wrote a good article about the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment who, having made a mess of the health portfolio, will go on to make a pure mess of his present job. I could not believe the Minister told a State grant-aided manufacturing industry in Ireland to take its manufacturing business out of the country. This will lose Ireland thousands of jobs and the people involved will have to claim social welfare payments.

I do not know why Fine Gael did not take up this point. Going to China seems to be the fad of the moment. The Ministers went out on this charade. I must table a question to see what the trip cost, who travelled and to where. Whatever happened out there, whether it was the altitude or the flight, it went to all their heads because I listened to Ministers and the Taoiseach encouraging Irish manufacturers to go to China instead of staying in Ireland and making it competitive. They should put an end to the stealth taxes occurring daily.

We have a number of industries in this country which want to stay here but which are being targeted by IDA and Enterprise Ireland to relocate their manufacturing, which will create major unemployment. We will then go back to the bad old days and the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs will have difficult decisions to make with regard to resources which will disappear if we do not realise what is happening.

The Minister needs to talk to the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, and to the Taoiseach. I listened recently to a former Mayoman of the year who created major employment in Belmullet by establishing Selc Ireland which manufactures top lighting control products sold throughout the world. In Westport, Allergan will lay off 300 or 400 people, possibly in April. McHales in Ballinrobe and other companies all find things difficult because of the stealth taxes in this country. The only suggestion the Government has for such firms is that they take their manufacturing operations from Mayo to China. We are not talking of Chinese restaurants, although we have them as well. We do not want our manufacturing industries moved abroad because the situation is not that simple. It is time that the Government began to consider how to make this country more competitive again.

I do not know how the Minister will deal with the issue of the carer's allowance. I welcome the increase and I would like to see full-time carers get more. However, I compliment the Minister. He is making an effort in the area and has further increased the allowance this year. I will not take that away from the Minister. He has also increased the respite grant, on which I also compliment him.

I would like to see the details of how applications can be made by full-time carers who, because of means or whatever else, do not receive the grant. Those details should be made available as quickly as possible by the Department because there is a great deal of interest in them. I think the Minister has under-calculated in this area and will have many more people applying than he expects. Over the years, people who are full-time carers have come to me as a practising politician. They would not have made an application to the Department at the time because the husband or wife, whichever was to be the carer, was working and earning a good salary. I know that the Minister has increased the earnings threshold. That is good and I welcome it. The Minister expects about 9,000 applications but I believe there will be many more. What he will have otherwise is many disappointed people who feel they are full-time carers. We are told that there are 50,000 more full-time carers than calculated by the Minister. I hope that these people will get some kind of reward.

The Minister has begun to address the carer problem and has done reasonably well. Although improvements can be made, we cannot always be critical. I know we have raised the issue many times and I am aware of the cost factor, but there must be a recognition of the people who look after their loved ones 24 hours a day, seven days a week with no State recognition. I hope the Minister will deal with that.

I will speak later about the judgment in the Supreme Court this morning and keep my powder dry until then. I think the Minister may be promoted again out of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. If there is any justice, fair play, dignity or gumption in this country, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, must resign. The Taoiseach would never resign but he must go too on the basis that the Government made a very bad judgment regarding the case in question.

I listened to the Minister, which is why I commented to Deputy Haughey about spin. When I heard the Minister speak on the day he got his new job, I said I would give him a chance because he was talking sense. The Minister mentioned a particular category of people, widows, and said his widowed mother would be in touch with him. I intend to write to the Minister's mother to tell her to put some pressure on him. Widows are the forgotten category in this country. I will ask the Minister's mother to talk to him and put pressure on him to look after our widows. He could start next year by assisting young widows. He should include them in the free schemes which would be a great start for them and would give them some help.

I do not mind saying that widows have been let down by all governments over the years. I do not know why. Last year, when we had the savage 16 cuts, the first attack was on the widows. As practising politicians, we have seen young husbands and wives left widowed with five or six children. In all fairness to them, they have struggled and worked hard. It is an awful shock to lose the main earner in a household or to lose a partner. The remaining partner must then make a decision. The husband must decide whether to stay at home full-time or go out to work and bring in someone to help raise the family. A widow must try to raise a family and perhaps do some part-time work. She is looking over her shoulder to see if the Department of Social and Family Affairs is keeping an eye on her. The widowers and widows of this country, but in particular the widows, must be complimented. They did a great job over the years. They were housewives and workers and they raised their families with very little support from the State.

Will the Minister consider this matter with his Department and officials? I have worked with those officials and there is a bit of heart in them. I know they want to help on Committee Stage because I have talked to them. They only want the Minister to make the decision. They will make recommendations but the Minister must make the political decision, and that must be to look after widows.

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