John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I may be able to allay some of the Senator's concerns. At present, ten payments are included: the contributory State pension, the non-contributory State pension, the widow's, widower's or serving civil partner's contributory pension, the widow's, widower's or serving civil partner's non-contributory pension, the disability allowance, the carer's allowance, the one-parent family payment, the invalidity pension, the State pension transition and the blind pension. Deductions from social protection payments for local property tax are made in accordance with instructions received from the Revenue Commissioners. The final point is that deductions for local property tax from social protection payments commenced in July 2013 and as of the week ending 17 January 2014, some 19,000 weekly deductions at source are being made for local property tax, giving a total of almost €110,000 per week in comparison with the year ending 12 July 2013. Of the 19,000 people who have deductions made from their social protection payment, 4,000 are in receipt of widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's contributory pension. The Department was unable to make deductions for a further 16 customers who requested to have deductions made from their widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's contributory pension as their weekly personal payment was below the personal rate of supplementary allowance of €186 per week. The person whose case Senator Moloney raises must be on an income of less than €186 per week.