Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 139: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the extent to which his Department has become involved in the provision of free travel in rural areas lacking public transport; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31428/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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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 Dublin Bus, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as services provided by over 80 private transport operators. The vast majority of private contractors providing services under the scheme operate in rural areas. The underlying feature of the scheme is the use of spare capacity on these transport services.

The issue of access to public transport in rural areas is being addressed at present through the Rural Transport Initiative, which is being managed by Pobal, formerly Area Development Management (ADM), on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Transport.

My Department contributed €500,000 to the Initiative in 2004, €750,000 in 2005 and is contributing €850,000 to the Initiative in 2006. This will ensure that free travel pass holders continue to have full access to community based transport services.

Significant improvements have been made to the free schemes, including the free travel scheme, in recent Budgets both in terms of the qualifying conditions and the coverage of the schemes. I will continue to review the operation of these schemes with a view to identifying the scope for further improvements as resources permit.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 140: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Kildare has been refused the back to school allowance and mortgage assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31458/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) and the mortgage interest supplement scheme is administered on behalf of my Department by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The Executive has advised that it has disallowed an application by the person concerned for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance as her total household income was above the prescribed €401.30 limit for entitlement to the allowance. The Executive has further advised that the area appeals officer has upheld the decision of the CWO to refuse her application for back to school clothing and footwear allowance.

A mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. The supplement assists with the interest portion of the mortgage repayments only.

The Executive has advised that the person concerned applied for a mortgage interest supplement but was refused as the household income was sufficient to meet their interest costs. It is open to her to appeal this decision to the area appeals officer of the Executive.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 141: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if one-off supplementary welfare assistance will be offered to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31460/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources. Each application is determined by the Executive based on the particular circumstances of the case. Eligible people would normally be in receipt of a social welfare or health service executive payment. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims.

The Dublin/Mid-Leinster Area of the Executive has advised that the person concerned applied for an exceptional needs payment on 14th September 2006, for the provision of household equipment and furnishing.

The application was refused by the Executive on the grounds that the person concerned had earlier received two exceptional needs payments in June 2006 for household equipment and furnishing provisions when he moved to his present accommodation. The person concerned has been advised of his right to appeal this decision to the designated appeals officer of the Executive.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if in the situation regarding rent allowance payments to persons in receipt of the back to education allowance who also, under the terms of the back to education allowance, take up part-time employment, he will consider for the duration of the course freezing the rent supplement allowance amount; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31366/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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People participating in approved courses under the back-to-education allowance scheme receive a standard weekly rate of payment equivalent to the maximum rate of their previous social welfare payment. The scheme also provides for the retention of entitlement to secondary benefits, such as rent or mortgage interest supplements under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme. This is an important feature as SWA is not normally paid to people in full-time education.

Under standard assessment rules rent supplements are calculated to ensure that an eligible person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of basic supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his or her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution, currently €13, which each recipient is required to pay from his or her own resources.

While earnings from part-time employment do not affect the basic rate of back-to-education allowance to which participants are entitled, such earnings are assessable for rent supplement purposes in the normal way. This may result in a reduction in the rate of rent supplement in payment. However, where a person has an additional income as a result of part-time employment the standard means test provides for a weekly disregard of up to €60 per week of additional income with half of any additional income between €60 and €90 also disregarded for means assessment purposes.

The benefit to those participating in the back to education allowance scheme is that their status as a full time student does not preclude them from getting SWA. I consider this to be a positive financial incentive to take up educational opportunities and I would regard the existing arrangements applying as satisfactory. I would encourage people availing of the back to-education allowance to contact their local community welfare officer to clarify their continuing entitlement to rent supplement in their new circumstances.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 143: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to a case in which persons (details supplied) in County Kildare have been informed by the Health Service Executive that their mortgage relief payments have been ceased due to the persons putting their house up for sale; and if in view of same he will assist in resolving this issue. [31382/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive.

A mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. The supplement assists with the interest portion of the mortgage repayments only.

The Executive has advised that the persons concerned had been in receipt of a mortgage interest supplement but payment was stopped as the household income was deemed sufficient to meet their interest costs.

The Executive has further advised that the house has also been offered for sale. Under the provisions governing the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, mortgage interest supplement is not payable where the residence in respect of which the loan is payable is offered for sale.