SEANAD REPORT: Mr Frank Feighan (FG) said the House should castigate RTÉ for its "horrible decision" that future pensioners would not be able to avail of the free television licence concession.
He said the State broadcaster had caused serious distress recently when it wrote to thousands of pensioners asking them to pay the €150 licence fee from now on.
That had been done mistakenly and RTÉ should apologise for it. However, much more shockingly, the State broadcaster now intended to penalise the elderly and future pensioners who spent most of their time enjoying TV in their twilight years by "axing" the licence concession.
The leader of the House, Ms Mary O'Rourke, said that Mr Feighan seemed to be the only person who had heard that RTÉ was taking away the licence concession for pensioners. "We'll inquire into it, but I don't think it's true," she added.
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It appeared that no school truancy officers had yet been appointed under legislation passed more than a year ago, the House was told. Mr Feargal Quinn (Ind) observed that the society of St Vincent de Paul had expressed deep concern about disadvantage in education. He asked that Ms O'Rourke, would inquire of the Minister, who exactly was responsible for ensuring that children attended school. He said that when the Bill dealing with the problem of truancy had been passed over 12 months ago, members had assumed that the removal of this duty from the Garda meant that it would be passed on to somebody else.
"I understand this is not happening. It seems to me that we are certainly not fulfilling our role as a nation in ensuring that those children who don't turn up at school are actually followed through, and ensure that something does happen afterwards."
Steps should be taken urgently to deal with this matter, Mr Quinn stressed. Ms O'Rourke said it appeared that nobody was responsible at present for children who were "mitching", because officers had not yet been appointed under the legislation.
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It was an awful waste of taxpayers' money to invite people to tell about their "happy times" in various institutions, Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said. He told the House that the Laffoy Commission had announced last weekend that it was advertising for people to send in their recollections of good experiences.
"I think this thing has gone completely out of all kilter and I just believe that this is a misuse of Government money. I think it's an awful waste of taxpayers' money, what's going on, that we should now be advertising for people to write in and tell us that they had a good time in whatever institution they were in," added Mr O'Toole.
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Any money saved by the refusal of Oireachtas members to accept payment increases to which they were entitled should be shared out among those who were prepared to take the rises, Mr Joe O'Toole, (Ind) suggested. Some TDs had recently questioned whether it was appropriate for members of the Oireachtas to accept the properly arbitrated increases. He asked that the Minister for Finance be requested to disclose how many people had turned down the rises.
Ms O'Rourke said she could not see herself making the kind of inquiry requested by Mr O'Toole. "I'd say everyone took it," she added.