Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State will be aware the closing date for every householder to indicate how he or she intended to pay his or her local property tax was 29 November last. People who wanted to pay their local property tax through their social welfare payments indicated that online and the system accepted that it would be deducted from a widow's contributory pension.

However, three weeks into the new year and approximately eight weeks since the closing date, widows received a letter from the Revenue Commissioner telling them that as long as they were in receipt of the widow's contributory pension, deduction at source was not an option for them. They were asked to go online again and choose any other method of payment other than deduction at source but the local property tax cannot be deducted from their widow's pension, from their wages if they are working or from a private pension.

I cannot understand why it took eight weeks to notify these people or why the local property tax cannot be deducted from the widow's contributory pension. The Minister for Social Protection told us the local property tax could be deducted from social welfare payments. I tried to include jobseeker's benefit in the list of options but the Minister said that was not possible because it was a short-term payment. The widow's contributory pension could not be considered a short-term payment. I am dealing with a number of people, one of whom is in her late 80s so she is unlikely to change her status at this stage of her life. I await the reply from the Minister of State.