ONLY a fraction of pensioners are likely to be eligible to benefit from the budget proposal to give £800 tax relief to burglar alarms for people over 65 and living alone.
The stipulation that they should live alone has come in for criticism from Mr Bobby Rice, chairman of the ICTU's committee for retired members, who pointed out that elderly couples were as vulnerable as those living alone. He also said that such couples, and elderly people living with siblings, bad already been brutally attacked.
Mr Tom Ryan, president of the National Federation of Pensioners Associations, pointed out that 11.4 per cent of the population, or some 700,000 people, were over 65. However, according to the Department of Social Welfare, of the 300,000 plus people over 65 in receipt of state benefit (many of them on behalf of spouses as well), only some 93,000 receive a living alone allowance.
There are no figures readily available for the percentage of those paying tax, but it is certain that those in receipt of a non contributory old age pension, who number over 100,000, are not.
While some of those in receipt of contributory retirement benefit or pensions also receive pensions from their former employment, the amount of this which is taxable will often be negligible. According to Mr Ryan, 74 per cent of those who receive a civil service pension get less than £150 a month.
While he welcomed the tax relief as a good gesture, he added "It may be of use to people living in town and villages. But in a rural area if an alarm goes off, who's going to hear it?"
The announcement came in for scathing criticism yesterday in the wake of the murder of two farmers in counties Galway and Kerry and ongoing raids on elderly people living alone.
"The budget provision is only of benefit to elderly people who have a taxable income. The less well off sector of elderly people lose out as most of them do not have a taxable income," ICMSA president, Mr Frank Allen, said.
In the west of Ireland where many of the recent attacks occurred over 50 per cent of farmers have no taxable income, while the benefit for those living in remoter areas would be very limited, it was claimed.
Both the IFA and ICMSA said that what was required was an effective alert system where people could contact their neighbours quickly.
"The budget announcement has shown that the Government is unaware of the growing crime problem in rural Ireland," Mr Allen added.
Muintir na Tire, which operates the successful Community Alert scheme, reiterated that few people in rural areas would benefit from the concession. "If the Minister is serious, he should transfer the allowance to a relative which would facilitate alarms being installed," its president, Mr Jim Quigley, said.
Senator Frank Fahey (FE) accused the Government of "a cynical gesture in the face of a most callous and shocking crimes".
The Eolas standard required for alarms to be approved by the insurance industry meant they were prohibitive at over £300 to most people, he claimed, whereas a basic but adequate alarm without the standard could be installed at a cost of about £100. "This would provide old people living alone with a facility to alert neighbours if they are suspicious people in the vicinity of their homes.
Meanwhile, Mr Eamonn & Cuiv TD (FE) said that many of the attacks could be ended if the Government allowed non contributory old age pensions to be no longer means tested. "Elderly people living in frugal circumstances are still reluctant to lodge money in banks. But that move would make their homes less attractive to criminals."
The president of Macra na Feirme, Mr Joe Healy, described the measure as a cynical gesture.
"Real action is needed to make elderly people feel safe in their homes, measures such as the deployment of more gardai in rural areas and financial assistance to all elderly people who wish to have security devices installed," he said.