Ireland’s OAPs facing €5 travel charge and electricity cutbacks
Civil servants are looking at charging old-age pensioners for free travel and cutting back on their electricity allowances, the Irish Independent has learned.
The proposals are being examined ahead of the Budget, which ministers have acknowledged is going to be savage.
It would mean pensioners would be asked to pay €5 for long rail and bus journeys.
High earners would also be hit, with anyone earning more than €200,000 set to be penalised.
But social welfare is seen as the area where most of the cuts will have to come.
It is not yet known if rent allowance for social-welfare recipients will be targeted.
The Government faces a potentially massive backlash if it goes ahead with the proposed cuts to allowances for the elderly. These include the free TV licence, electricity, gas and telephone allowances and the free travel pass — all costing a combined €450m a year. Under changes to the free-travel scheme that are now being considered, pensioners would be asked to pay towards the cost of their travel — possibly a €5 contribution for a train fare.
“It would be subsidised, rather than free,” a government source said.
Ministers believe that old-age pensioners would not object to making some contribution towards the cost of their travel.
However, cuts to the free TV licence and subsidised electricity and gas would be highly contentious.
The additional entitlements for pensioners – known as the Household Benefits Package – are under the spotlight as Social Protection Minister Joan Burton seeks to find cuts.
“It would be a surprise if the Department of Social Protectionwas not looking at all these schemes,” another source said. Aside from opposition from elderly people, there will also be concerns expressed by the companies that benefit from the funds. CIE, ESB, RTE and Eircom are among the companies that would be affected if there were cuts to the benefits.
Cuts to the package were also looked at last year when the department drew up a menu of potential measures. Around 400,000 people get the current package of benefits. The schemes cost almost €370m last year.
The package of benefits is available for all those aged 70 or over, regardless of their income. The benefits are also given to: people in receipt of the Carer’s Allowance, who live with the person being cared for; pensioners aged between 66-70, generally living alone and getting a social welfare payment; and people aged under 66 who are receiving a disability or a caring-related payment.
The Household Benefits Package is made up of:
- The electricity or gas allowance. – Telephone allowance. – Free TV licence.
The Free Travel Scheme is a separate entitlement available to over 1.1 million people – pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and their families.
Currently, there are 720,000 elderly and disabled people eligible for free travel. But when passes for spouses and companions are added in, this rises to over 1.1 million.
A review group – made up of officials from the departments of Social Protection, Transport, Public Expenditure and Reform and the National Transport Authority – is currently examining the scheme.
The cost of the Free Travel Scheme has risen from €46m in 2001 to €75m in 2011.
Impact: But the sums paid to transport companies have been frozen for the past two years. The review is to examine and report on the current operation and future development of the Free Travel Scheme.
The department says no decisions have yet been made about the scheme and that it appreciated the important role of free travel in preventing the isolation of elderly people. Any cuts would have a direct impact on the companies who get direct or indirect payments from the Department of Social Protection.
“You can bet the impact would be raised with ministers,” a source said.
Under the electricity and gas allowance, customers get 1,800 units. ESB customers with Electric Ireland receive an allocation of 150 units a month on their bills, with direct payment made by the department to Electric Ireland under the standard rate. Customers who use other suppliers, such as Airtricity or Bord Gais, or who use gas, receive a cash payment of €39.40 a month.
The telephone allowance is €22.22 a month. Eircom customers have this paid directly on their bills and under a special deal negotiated with the telephone company they get €26.86 off their bill each month.
Anybody else, including those who use mobile phones, gets €22.22 in cash. The free television licence is worth €160 a year.
Minister Reilly says plans for free GP care for long-term ill ‘is on track’
Government plans to roll out free GP care to people with long-term illnesses are “very much on track”, according to Minister for Health James Reilly.
Dr Reilly rejected a report in yesterday’s Irish Times that the measure was delayed by at least a year. However, he acknowledged there had been “some delay” and that the legislation underpinning the change was complex.
The Bill providing for the extension of free GP care to people with diabetes, epilepsy and other long-term illnesses will be published in the next Dáil term, Dr Reilly said.
The measure, the first step towards a Government promise to introduce free GP care for all, was supposed to have been introduced by last March, according to the programme for government.
Dr Reilly subsequently promised that everyone on the long-term illness scheme would have access to free GP care by the summer, but this deadline was not met.
The Bill has been delayed because of drafting difficulties arising from the proposal to grant medical cards on the basis of illness, rather than means. Another factor has been the priority given to other health legislation in the Attorney General’s office.
Talks have yet to take place with the Irish Medical Organisation and the Irish College of General Practitioners on the measure.
Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher said he had no confidence the measure would be introduced this year.
Warning for Irish household’s over bogus home tax charge callers
Ireland’s local authorities have issued a warning to householders to be wary of bogus callers demanding cash payment of the €100 household charge.
Cork County Council confirmed it had received numerous reports that individuals claiming to be from the authority were calling to houses and demanding payment.
Similar bogus callers are also understood to have been reported in Dublin, Waterford and Galway.
Gardai urged elderly people concerned about callers never to allow anyone into their house and to alert neighbours or family if concerned.
Organic food industry myth of more nutritious food is hard to swallow ‘claims a professor’
The organic food industry is wrong in its claims to produce more nutritious, healthier and tastier food, a leading Irish food scientist has said.
And its credibility will “go down the drain” when it is finally asked to prove these claims, said Professor Mike Gibney, director of UCD’s Institute of Food and Health.
He slated the “foolish debate” over the supposed superiority of organic food, noting that every major review, including a recent one by Stanford University, had refuted these claims.
The organic industry will eventually be brought to the European Food Safety Authority to prove its claims, but they have a record of rejecting 90pc of health claims made to them because there’s no scientific proof, Professor Gibney told an Agricultural Science Association conference in Wicklow yesterday.
Organic week was just finishing but the industry was wrong on all four counts that it produced more nutritious, tastier, healthier and more environmentally friendly food, he said.
“They are building themselves up for a big crash… Trust is hard won and easily lost”.
The organic lobby would be better to market their lifestyle appeal to middle-class people rather than trying to frighten them by claiming they fed their children inferior food if they didn’t buy organic.
Professor Gibney said he was incensed as a scientist by the claims made for different foods and had written a book, ‘Something to Chew On’, to try and dispel myths.
He accused environmental groups of “hideous scaremongering” in the debate on genetically modified crops, which had featured grim reapers and coffins in a protest in Dublin this week.
None of the warnings of environmental or health disaster had come to pass in the US or South America where GM crops were widespread, yet Europe remained risk-adverse to them, said Professor Gibney.
He also noted that while obesity was portrayed as the biggest public health nutrition issue, malnutrition among the elderly had been found to be even more costly, according to aEuropean Parliament white paper.
That was because while there were various drugs to deal with the impact of obesity on heart health, malnutrition among older people led to more hospital admissions and complications.
In Britain, oral nutritional supplements had been found to be highly effective in reducing these high hospital costs, but there was no such initiative or monitoring of this is Ireland.
“We live with a rapidly ageing population and thus there must be a greater investment in studies of diet in areas such as cognitive, motor and visual decline,” said Professor Gibney.
Owner of Lusitania insists it was carrying explosives when it sank
The owner of the wreck of the Lusitania has rejected the findings of a €1.5m documentary into what caused the liner to sink so fast.
Greg Bemis told the Irish Independent he was now looking for permission from the Government to organise a second dive to the wreck — some 16km off the Old Head of Kinsale.
Mr Bemis was speaking in Cork, where he attended a special event to mark the worldwide launch of the National Geographicdocumentary ‘Dark Secrets of the Lusitania’ — the most ambitious underwater film project ever attempted here.
“I believe the truth is vital, we need to pursue the truth in all major historical events,” Mr Bemis said.
The Lusitania was struck by a single torpedo from the German submarine U-20 on May 7, 1915 off the Cork coast.
However, a second explosion was reported just minutes later, and the ship sank in less than 18 minutes.
A total of 1,198 people died. There were just 761 survivors.
The British and American authorities wrongly accused the U-boat of having fired a second torpedo at the stricken ship.
The second explosion was then blamed on coal dust in a bunker igniting, and the new TV documentary speculates that a boiler blew up when cold sea water rushed into the hull following the torpedo strike.
But Mr Bemis said he remained convinced that Allied munitions being carried by the liner was the real cause.
“They (National Geographic) used insufficient data when they made their decision,” he said.
“In fact, they did not have all the information they should have had — they used a computer analysis to get their theory and a computer is only as good as the garbage you put in. You put garbage in, you get garbage out,” he said.
Mr Bemis said a second dive with full access to the hull was now required before the Lusitania centenary.
“You have to understand there were two different types of munitions being carried — there were three million rounds of .303 (rifle) ammunition on the ship.
“But they would not have caused the second explosion. That was caused, in my opinion, by explosives stored in a magazine at the base of the ship. This was in the bow in a converted coal bunker.”
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