Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

It was cold for the people who travelled from Galway to Croke Park. The increase is very welcome and I compliment the Minister.

The package for care of older persons amounting to €150 million is also very welcome. Home help should be promoted, as should the nursing home subvention which I mentioned, improvements to palliative care and sheltered housing. Housing aid for the elderly, administered by the HSE, is an excellent scheme and requires greater funding.

The Minister has referred to pensions on many occasions. I tried to convey the importance of pensions to members of the farming community but it was very difficult to convince them to make a contribution to a social welfare fund for that purpose. A good scheme was devised in 1987 or 1988 whereby ten years of continuous contributions entitled one to a State pension. I applaud the Minister for changing the name of the old age pension to "State pension", and that the phrase "old age" will no longer be used. People without ten years' contributions will receive a pension pro rata, which is also welcome.

County councillors have also inquired as to whether they might make contributions to a scheme to qualify them for a State pension, but I will not go any further into the issue as it is very complicated. The farming community and self-employed welcome these provisions and there is now a good basis to review other areas.

I have raised the subject of missionaries with the Minister on many occasions. The habitual residence requirement has prevented many of them from returning to claim certain social welfare benefits. People think this is solely about pensions but it concerns more than pensions. It concerns a missionary who might wish to return to look after an elderly person and claim the carer's allowance, which is disallowed at present because of the habitual residence requirement. It also concerns any medical treatment they might require, and disability or sickness benefit, now illness benefit. They are told that the habitual residence laws mean they do not qualify for social welfare benefits. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, of which I am a member, has set up a sub-committee to try to make progress on this and I believe we will do so. I am determined that we will solve this problem. The sub-committee will be in constant touch with officials at the Department of Social and Family Affairs about the matter. I hope the Minister will be able to make proposals to deal with this issue, as it is an important matter for a small and declining number of people in the missions. Some want to stay out there while more want to return home. Whatever scheme the Minister comes up with should be supported.

I will address the issue of people with pensions outside the country. I welcome that the Minister has allowed people who work in the United States or European countries, for example, to add their contributions there to those made here. However, people who have worked in Great Britain, particularly England, now live in Ireland and are in receipt of a disability or incapacity benefit must sometimes go to the United Kingdom for medical examinations. This should not be the case. I can give the Minister examples and have previously written to him about people who lost their disability benefits and appealed here but needed to undergo their medicals in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I am told that it is difficult to get there despite modern methods of transport. If these medicals cannot be arranged in the Republic, people should be allowed to arrange their medicals in Belfast and have them on this island rather than needing to travel to Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In fact, people have told me they would not mind if they could travel to London, Luton or somewhere with an airport but it would be better to have the medicals in Ireland and as close to home as possible.

I hope the Minister will examine this issue which affects a number of people with illness and incapacity benefits. To ask a person who is unwell to travel to Britain to undergo a medical is wrong and unfair. I hope a change can be made. I thank the Minister for introducing the Bill, to which he has given a strong theme of reform. I hope that he will be successful in making changes in the other issues with which he is dealing, particularly in respect of lone parents.