1996. Deputy Mark Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the estimated cost of increasing the telephone support allowance by €5 per week; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56686/26]

The Telephone Support Allowance is a weekly payment of €2.50 for people on certain social welfare payments who are also getting both the Living Alone Increase and the Fuel Allowance.  The primary objective of the Telephone Support Allowance is to allow the most vulnerable people at risk of isolation, including the elderly and those with disabilities, access to personal alarms or phones for security.

If the measure outlined by the Deputy was introduced in 2027, it is estimated that there would be an average of 169,500 recipients of the Telephone Support Allowance. The estimated total cost of the measures outlined by the Deputy is therefore €44.07 million.

However, any proposal to increase the rate payable for the Telephone Support Allowance would require additional funding for the scheme and would have to form part of overall budgetary negotiations, and of course, will have to take account of the availability of financial resources.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.