Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 183: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the estimated cost of extending the free travel companion pass scheme to persons who are aged 70 years and over and who are medically certified as unfit to travel alone. [18814/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Free travel companion passes have been issued to over 14,000 people aged 75 and over and to almost 900 people aged 70 to 74 because they qualify through other criteria, for example, where they are recipients of invalidity pension or wheelchair users. As I have no details of how many of those aged 70 to 74 would be medically assessed as unfit to travel alone, it is not possible to estimate the cost of extending the companion pass to all those who are in this group.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when rent allowance will be approved in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18862/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. One of the conditions for receipt of rent supplement is that the tenant must be in need of accommodation and be unable to obtain it from within his or her own resources. Local housing authorities assess the accommodation needs.

The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that the person concerned was referred to her local authority for an assessment of her housing needs. Having completed its assessment, the local authority advised the executive that the person concerned is not considered to be in need of housing as she has the option of living in the family home. In these circumstances, she does not satisfy the conditions for receipt of rent supplement under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme.