Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, is in the Chamber because we are both happy to talk about something that matters rather than talking about Garth Brooks, as we have been doing the whole day.

I work closely with Age Action Ireland in my constituency. I have a number of senior citizens fora and Age Action Ireland attends regularly. It tells local people about its care and repair programmes, which are of great benefit, and it does a lot of sound work.

However, it got it wrong with this campaign. The campaign has unnecessarily worried people and got them frightened.

They know how important their travel pass and independence are to them. They value that independence and the very suggestion that it would be interfered with scared them. I believe Age Action Ireland was mistaken in embarking on this campaign, because there was never a threat to this scheme. At this juncture, considering that the Ministers for Social Protection and Transport, Tourism and Sport have said there is no threat to this scheme, this debate should stop now, the motion should be withdrawn and we should debate something genuinely important.

It is important to discuss the concept of universality. Often we can be quite complacent about some of our social infrastructure and the reason for it. We will have a debate soon on free GP care for children under six and some people will say it is unnecessary for people of a certain income bracket to have or avail of social infrastructure or supports like this. However, if we live in and believe in the essence of a republic, services such as free travel passes, free GP care or free education for everybody are constants we cannot lose sight of, even in straitened times. I had a meeting with Dublin Bus recently and was told that the €75 million it gets from the social protection budget is vital to the survival of Dublin Bus as a public transport entity in the city. Therefore, it would be nonsense to suggest this investment from the Department of Social Protection would be interfered with.

I must touch on the issue of Fianna Fáil hypocrisy, because this issue is being used by Fianna Fáil as a political football to scare people who are terrified their travel pass may be interfered with. I remind the House that if the Government had followed the four-year plan as laid out by Fianna Fáil when it signed up with the IMF, we would have seen €1.7 billion more in cuts to the social protection budget. In that scenario, it would have been practically impossible to maintain essential services such as the travel pass. Fianna Fáil should be grateful the Government did not follow its four-year plan and that €1.7 billion extra was not taken from the social protection budget. As a result, schemes like the travel pass can be maintained.

I thank the Ministers for their clarity on this issue. There has been no ambiguity. Their language has been straightforward and there has been no obfuscation or clever use of language. Ministers from across the spectrum, involved in transport and social protection, have been categorical that there is no need for this motion and there is no threat to the travel pass. It stayed for the past three years and stayed under the previous Administration. Therefore, there is no point in discussing the issue further.

The best thing for Fianna Fáil to do is to apologise for raising the fears of senior citizens and apologise for the tone of its motion and withdraw it on foot of the categorical statements given by the Minister.

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