Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McGreehan for raising this issue. First and foremost, it is important to say that my answer is coming from the perspective of the Department of Social Protection, which administers the free travel scheme. The free travel scheme provides free travel on public transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are two broad categories of people who can qualify for the free travel scheme. The first group is those aged 66 and over who are resident in Ireland. This wide category covers a significant number of the people to whom the Senator refers. Second, those who qualify for certain social welfare payments may be eligible. This second category of people includes those who are entitled to the blind pension, disability allowance, invalidity pension and carer's allowance, or an equivalent social security payment from a country covered by EC regulations or one with which Ireland has a bilateral social security agreement.

Overall, there are approximately 999,000 people with direct eligibility, with an annual allocation of €95 million provided to fund the scheme. The majority of supports provided by the Department are provided via an income support approach. While medical evidence is required to determine eligibility for certain social welfare schemes, medical evidence alone does not generally determine eligibility directly for the free travel scheme. Generally, eligibility for a particular social welfare payment must also be confirmed.

If the free travel scheme were to be extended on the basis of medical evidence alone, regardless of whether a person is in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment, a medical assessment process would be required for all such applications in order to adjudicate eligibility, thereby significantly changing the nature of the scheme. Any decision to extend the free travel scheme in such a manner would require additional funding and significant administrative changes and, accordingly, any proposed change could only be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations. However, a very important point to note is that there is a mechanism whereby people who cannot reasonably meet their transport costs from their own resources can apply for financial assistance. The supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, scheme administered by my Department is designed to enable persons to seek assistance in the form of an exceptional needs payment where they cannot meet a necessary cost from their own resources. Under the SWA, my Department may award an emergency needs payment for travel costs where the circumstances of a particular case so warrant.

Every decision is based on consideration of the individual circumstances, taking account of the nature and extent of the need and of the resources of the person concerned. Figures available to me for 2019 show that there were 17,214 emergency needs payments made in respect of travel needs, with payments totalling €1.2 million. It is important that people are made aware of the SWA and the availability of the emergency needs payment for costs, including travel costs, that cannot be reasonably met from their own resources.