Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let us say the Deputy has been raising the spectre of charges and restrictions. There are no proposals in that regard. The scheme is almost 50 years old. It has been remarkably robust since its inception in 1967. As I explained in my reply, there are some problems with the issue of identification and a small level of misuse of the scheme. We have now introduced 197,000 of the new public services cards, which are embedded with the photo of the person who is entitled. In this case, the initial roll-out is to retired people. Embedded also in this card is "FT" for the free travel pass. That allows a high level of safeguarding against fraud and certainty as to the identity and entitlement of the person who is seeking free travel.

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