Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

I have knowledge of this area because when I was Minister for Finance and Proinsias De Rossa was Minister for Social Welfare, we attempted to extend the free travel scheme to cover pensioners in the North. When efforts were made in recent times to extend the same facility to Irish-born people living in England — the DION constituency — we ran into a problem because a state cannot discriminate between one nationality and another within the Union. One cannot discriminate between one nationality and another across the EU. If free travel for pensioners was to be extended, it would have to be for all 25 member states. There could be capacity implications resulting from that. Surely the number of people across the EU that might qualify for free travel due to a health impediment will be smaller than the cohort of pensioners. Their physical condition is such that they will not be doing long-distance journeys for the sheer fun of it.

This is about rights. If a European citizen has a right to free travel by virtue of a health impediment, that person should have that right across the Union, even though it is unlikely he or she will exercise it from Malta to Finland. However, a Polish family may be living here with a relative in Poland who has that entitlement. These rights would help to consolidate families in those circumstances. This question has clearly come from a citizen of this State who has a direct experience of this impediment.

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