Ms Geraldine Fitzpatrick:

It relates to the Department of Social Protection. All the people concerned who are on disability allowance would also have an entitlement to free travel. In the case of older people, the area in which I worked before I came to this area, transport is one of the key issues for them, particularly those in rural areas. Transport is a much bigger issue than health. Access to transport around social activities even for mental health purposes is vital. Aside from whatever local schemes that exist and whatever transport the HSE provides to and from day care, and there are a lot of voluntary initiatives affecting older people on the disability side, but there is nothing of the order of this kind of allowance available to older people for this purpose.