312 Mr. V. Brady asked the Minister for Social Welfare if there are any plans to extend the concessions such as a free telephone rental allowance, a free television licence and free electricity allowance, which are available at present to recipients of Irish and British State pensions, to those outside these categories who would otherwise be considered to qualify.

Entitlement to free electricity allowance, free telephone rental allowance and free television licence is confined to persons who are in receipt of a qualifying payment and who are either living alone or living with excepted persons only. The main categories covered are old age pensioners and disabled persons who are in receipt of social welfare type payments, including persons in receipt of certain health board payments and persons from other EC member states and countries with whom Ireland has bilateral social security agreements.

The current annual cost of the various free schemes (excluding free travel) is of the order of £47 million and the question of extending those schemes to new categories of recipients could only be considered in a budgetary context.