Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Public Accounts Committee
2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 38 – Social Protection
Chapter 21 – Expenditure on Welfare and Employment Schemes
Chapter 22 – Welfare Overpayment Debts
Chapter 23 – Regularity of Social Welfare Payments
Social Insurance Fund – Annual Accounts 2011
12:45 pm
Ms Niamh O'Donoghue:
It has been monitored previously in so far as the funding provided for the scheme was originally based on ridership surveys.
The last such survey on the predominant beneficiary of the scheme, CIE, took place in October 1973. It has been quite some time since a ridership survey has been conducted there. Since then, there have been many changes to the scheme in terms of extending the benefits, including in 2006 where there had been restrictions on when people could avail of free travel.