Every older resident of a nursing home will be entitled to a private phone line from this morning.
The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, will announce details of the extension of the free telephone rental scheme to all nursing home residents at an event in St Attracta's Nursing Home, in Charlestown, Co Mayo, this morning.
An estimated 20,000 people over the age of 65 will be entitled to the allowance, worth €28.19 every two months.
To date, the allowance had been payable only to people aged 66 or over and living alone. The only exceptions allowed were if the elderly person was living with dependent children, a dependent incapacitated adult or a full-time carer.
People under 66 are also entitled to the phone allowance if they get an invalidity, disability, disablement or blind person's payment.
Anyone over 75 is entitled to the allowance if they satisfy the free schemes means test, irrespective of who lives with them.
The extension of the allowance will organisations working in the interests of older people.
A National Council for the Aged report, Institutional care of the Elderly in Ireland, says: "Elderly people should at all times be given the facilities and opportunities to function independently and to retain their identity as individual persons."
