Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am very sure that this did not come to the Minister's desk because it was an administrative decision. I will give the Minister the example I was going to give anyway. A gentleman in my constituency, who is probably not watching this debate, has given me permission to outline the facts of his case, although not to name him. He is sitting at home and believes he is down €66.20 a month. This man has terminal cancer. He was previously on an invalidity payment after working full time all of his life. He went onto PCB on the understanding that he would get the living alone allowance. He got one of these letters a few weeks ago.

Given the correspondence I got when I contacted to the Department, this all seems very clear to me. The letter says that following an internal review of PCB payments, it was highlighted that a small number of customers were also in receipt of a living allowance as part of their payment. It goes on to say that there is no legislative basis for paying this allowance under the entitlements of PCB and that, as such, this gentleman was contacted to inform him that the payment of his living alone allowance would cease. The rest of the letter is not relevant. The point is that it seems this decision was arrived at because of a review. The letter mentions that there is no statutory basis for this payment. There is no statutory basis for free travel, for fuel allowance or, as far as I know, for the living alone allowance. If there is such a basis, it must have been introduced recently. This was an administrative decision and an unkind one. I welcome that it has been changed but it seems unlikely that this happened by accident.

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