Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if progress has been made since May 2006 regarding his commitment to examine the proposal of granting free travel to all beneficiaries of an Irish pension. [23022/06]

Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will clarify comments made in May 2006 in which he appeared to confirm that the Government has effectively abandoned efforts to extend free travel to Irish pensioners living abroad when they return here; the Government's position on free travel for the Irish abroad; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19718/06]

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 132: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will award free travel to Irish pensioners living abroad when they return home on holidays; and if he has examined the wider issues of Irish people living abroad who do not hold State pensions but who are over 66, and their entitlement to free travel when they return home on holiday. [23683/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 101, 110 and 132 together.

The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. All carers in receipt of carer's allowance and carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance, regardless of their age, receive a free travel pass. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such as disability allowance, invalidity pension and blind person's pension.

People resident in the State who are in receipt of a social security invalidity or disability payment from a country covered by EU Regulations, or from a country with which Ireland has a bilateral social security agreement, and who have been in receipt of this payment for at least 12 months, are also eligible for free travel.

The scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators. The free travel scheme applies to travel within the State and point to point cross border journeys between here and Northern Ireland. In line with the Government objective to put in place an all Ireland free travel scheme for pensioners resident in all parts of this island, I am committed to significantly improving the North/South element of the current arrangements.

There have been a number of requests and enquiries in relation to the extension of entitlement to free travel in Ireland to Irish born people living outside Ireland, or to those in receipt of pensions from my Department, particularly in the UK when they return to Ireland for a visit. I have been advised that it would not be possible to extend entitlement to free travel simply to Irish born people living abroad as to do so would be contrary to European legislation which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of nationality.

Officials from my Department met with European Commission officials in April in an effort to clarify the legal issues involved. In the past few days the Commission's response to the issues raised at that meeting has become available and is currently being examined by my officials.

Gay Mitchell (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 102: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs further to Parliamentary Question No. 70 of 11 May 2006, if he has received the report on the application of unemployment payment scheme conditions to workers who are not employed on a full time basis, including those available for part-time work only; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23086/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The unemployment schemes provide income support for people who are seeking their first job or have lost work and are seeking alternative employment. A fundamental qualifying condition for both the unemployment benefit scheme and unemployment assistance scheme is that a person must be available for full-time work.

Where a person is employed for up to three days in a week, s/he may claim Unemployment Benefit in respect of the remainder of the week, subject to being available for full-time work. Benefit is not payable where a person is available for part-time work only.

I recognise the development of a changing labour market with people wishing to have a choice of more flexible work patterns. In this context and to inform future policy in this area, a working group was set up under the Expenditure Review initiative to examine the application of the unemployment payment scheme conditions to workers who are not employed on a full-time basis.

The review will be finalised shortly and the report will be published over the summer period at which stage I will consider its recommendations.