Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

Yes. Is the Minister examining the situation whereby farmers' wives have been carrying on the business of farming, while in many cases the farm is taxed only in the name of the husband? This must be addressed. Does the Minister have a figure regarding the number of women dependants involved in the pension scheme who were forced to give up their jobs in earlier years? The Minister recently said 47,000 people were on non-contributory social welfare pensions but 30,000 of those were women. How many of those were forced out of jobs? Self-employed people need to be dealt with and properly advised. Is the Department making any effort to do that?

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