Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As such, it does not cover people getting grants. We will discuss the response of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection when its representatives appear before the committee. I cannot ask Ms Dixon to comment on the Department's response, on which we will have a significant number of questions to put to its officials.

Ms Dixon may be surprised by two other issues. She mentioned the travel pass a few times and perhaps she will tell me if I am right or wrong on this issue. Deputies meet constituents with different problems. I met a person who is a carer and had the travel pass as part of the social welfare card, which they could present to Iarnród Éireann to travel to and from Dublin or as the case may be. A point came when this person was no longer a carer and was, by right, no longer entitled to use the card. The card still worked for free travel, however. Four or five months later, the person got a bill from Iarnród Éireann for €1,048 along with a list of all of the dates on which the card had been used since the point at which, in Iarnród Éireann's opinion, the person was no longer deemed to be a carer. Iarnród Éireann used the public services card to collect information on the number of rail trips the person made. One day the person arrived in Heuston Station and could not pass through the gate because Iarnród Éireann had obviously been in touch with the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.