Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

The fact that I must raise the issue of a lady's entitlement to contributory widow's pension is no reflection on my colleagues in Kerry South. The lady concerned is a business woman in Macroom town who provides valuable employment in a small factory, and has done so for the past 20 years or more.

I am confused and annoyed at the prevarication of the Department of Social and Family Affairs in this case. Clearly, the lady concerned meets all the relevant criteria for qualifying for the pension. The sole issue the Department is making a big deal of is the lady's address for purposes of communication. I am aware from previous contact with this lady that she has had a difficulty with Cork County Council about planning permission. She had an address in Cork, had a difficulty with planning permission and has used an address in County Kerry for the purposes of her application. Her solicitor and I have made representations to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. She meets all the criteria regarding contributions and her marital status. I fail to understand why the Department adopts such a bloody-minded approach on this issue.

The lady was in receipt of this payment until 2003 but since then has had difficulty validating her claim to the satisfaction of the Department. It requires political intervention at the highest level at this stage. That is the reason I took the unusual step of raising an individual social welfare case on the floor of the House. I appreciate that the Minister of State is taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social and Family Affairs but I appeal to him to consider the matter favourably. The woman has offered to meet with social welfare officials and has given an address that she uses but for some reason the Department will not accept it as valid.

I raised this matter earlier this week in a parliamentary question but received a meaningless reply, which is unacceptable. At this stage, I can only put the case in the Minister's hands. As he is not the Minister of State at the Department and given that I anticipate a similar response to the reply I received to my parliamentary question, I ask him to revert to the line Minister on this issue and ask her to re-examine the case as a matter of urgency.

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