Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Question 9: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the effect the Budget 2007 measures to support older people will have; his reasons for adding a mobile phone option to the telephone allowance scheme; the impact this will have on persons with prepaid phones; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43163/06]

Seán Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 64: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the impact of the Budget 2007 measures to support older people; the reason he introduced a mobile phone option to the telephone allowance scheme; the way it will be of help to persons on prepaid phones; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43161/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 64 together.

Since taking Office this Government has made the needs of older people a priority with the inclusion of several commitments in the Programme for Government aimed specifically at this group. I am very pleased to say that we have delivered on our commitment to bring the basic State Pension (non-contributory) to €200 a week by increasing it by €18. In addition, the State pension (contributory) has increased by €16 a week to €209.30. The effect of these unprecedented increases is that since 1996, and including increases granted in the current year, pensions have increased by almost 119%, or about 57% in real terms, faster than both price and wages growth over the period.

I am also making significant progress on the Government commitment to increase the Qualified Adult Allowance for spouses and partners of contributory pensioners to the level of the State pension (non-contributory). The Budget 2007 increase of €23.70 per week in the qualified adult payment will benefit some 35,500 couples.

In addition, this improvement will bring the Qualified Adult Allowance for those aged 66 years of age and over to 86.5% of the target rate contained in the Government commitment.

In Budget 2006, for the first time in many years, I increased the basic income disregard for the purposes of the means test for non-contributory pensions to €20 per week. At the same time, I introduced incentives for pensioners on means tested payments, who may wish to earn extra income, to continue in employment, with €100 per week earnings disregarded. I was happy to be able to build on these improvements by increasing the basic means disregard to €30 per week and enhancing the employment earnings disregard to €200 per week. These measures will benefit approximately 26,000 pensioners a week who are currently in receipt of a reduced rate of pension. As a consequence, for them, the additional increases in the personal rate will be up to €10 per week while the Qualified Adult rate will further increase by up to €6.60 per week.

These pensioners will, of course, also benefit from the general €18 per week increase in the personal rate of payment and, where relevant, the €11.90 increase in the payment for qualified adults. The overall effect of these changes means that some non-contributory pensioner couples will gain by over €46 per week from January.

In addition to improvements to pensions and qualified adult allowances, I introduced a range of other measures which will benefit older people.

In order to further develop the telephone allowance to respond to the expanding telecommunications market and to facilitate greater customer choice of telephone services, I expanded the telephone allowance to include mobile phones. This is a particularly important step given the high level of mobile phone ownership in Ireland now and the fact that some households do not have land lines at all. It will also assist in achieving the objectives of the scheme which are to ensure access to help in an emergency and to provide an element of security as well as to encourage social contact and to assist in the prevention of social isolation for those living alone.

Under these new arrangements which will be implemented in April 2007, people will have a choice as to whether the allowance is applied to their mobile phone or to their landline. In order to facilitate pay-as-you-go mobile phones, where the allowance is applied to a mobile phone it will be paid as a cash amount of €24.70 per month which includes the VAT.

I also extended eligibility for the companion free travel pass to those aged 66 to 74 who are certified as medically unfit to travel unaccompanied. This will take effect from March 2007.

I have also announced the introduction, early next year, of an all Ireland Free Travel scheme which will allow Irish pensioners to travel throughout Northern Ireland free of charge on public transport, while Northern pensioners will be able to do likewise here.

I have also provided for improvements for carers which will be of benefit to older people. I have increased the income disregard for carers allowance by €30 to €320 per week for a single person and by €60 to €640 per week for a couple. I have increased the rate of carer's allowance for people aged over 66 by €18 per week to €218 per week.

I was very pleased to introduce fundamental structural reforms in this area whereby people in receipt of another social welfare payment, such as the State pension (contributory), who are also providing full time care and attention to a person, will be able to retain their main welfare payment and receive another payment, depending on their means, the maximum of which will be equivalent of a half rate carer's allowance. The precise details regarding how this new arrangement will operate are being examined and will be set out in legislation early next year. The measure will come into effect in September 2007.

I am conscious of the high heating costs that many pensioners face. That is why I recently made provision for increases in the electricity and gas element of the household benefits package of free schemes. In Budget 2007, I have made further progress with regard to assistance with heating cost which will benefit a significant number of people, many of whom are pensioners. I increased the rate of the national fuel allowance by €4 to €18 per week, from January 2007. I also increased the income threshold for eligibility for fuel allowance from €51 to €100 per week thereby enabling more people to qualify for the scheme.

I was very pleased that EU SILC data for 2005 showed a significant drop in the risk of poverty for older people and this did not include the 2006 or 2007 increases. Accordingly, I am confident that the reduction in poverty risk will be maintained and, indeed, improved on as a result of the improvements I have made in Budget 2007.