(Carlow-Kilkenny): Tá mé buíoch díot gur thug tú seans dom anocht labhairt faoin bhfadhb seo. Having heard about the millions of pounds mentioned in the previous reply I feel embarrassed to mention to the Minister for Social Welfare that I am looking for a few measly hundreds of pounds only. Let me say to the Minister, as the new Minister for Social Welfare, that all new brooms sweep clean and I am quite sure the Minister will face into his Department sweeping all these archaic rules out of existence. There are many archaic rules and I would advise the Minister to catch them by the scruff of the neck and throw them out as soon as possible.
The case I speak about tonight concerns a Carlow man who, because of his bad health was awarded a free telephone rental. He has angina, arthritis and blood pressure, and each morning he has to put a patch on his chest to stabilise his system. He is a widower and he has an only child and while that child attended school each day he was, up to this, in a position to use the telephone if he needed medical attention.
However, for some strange reason, the Department of Social Welfare decided that when the daughter had reached the magic age of 15 there would be no need for him to get help. That is forgetting, of course, that the daughter is going to school each morning by bus at 8 o'clock and coming back at about 5 o'clock in the evening. He is on his own for more than one-third of every day. The daughter is not earning money but going to school, which all 15 year olds should do, and which is the least we can offer our children. While the legal age up to which a child must be in full-time education is 15, we cannot talk about legal standards at this stage. The age up to which children go to school is generally 18.
I would suggest to the Minister that he should raise that legal age to 18 to make it practical. This girl will be at school for the next three years and this man is deprived of the free rental because she is 15.
The numbers I am talking about are very few. The cost would be small and the relief would be huge in terms of taking the pressure and worry from people who are in this position. I would therefore appeal to the Minister to deal with this in a practical way and to please avoid telling me about archaic rules that he is stuck with. If the Minister must tell me about them let him tell me he will change them.