Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)
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Question 333: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the payments paid in respect of rental subsidies to tenants for private rented accommodation in each of the years 1997 to 2006. [21469/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The expenditure on Rent Supplement for 1997 to 2007 is shown in the following tabular statement. Expenditure up to the end of August 2007 was €262 million. Total expenditure in 2007 will be of the order of €400 million

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of the scheme is to provide short-term income support, in the form of a weekly or monthly payment, to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

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

Many recipients pay more than €13 because recipients are also required to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their accommodation costs.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 334: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to adjust the guidelines of the household benefit package to ensure that widows aged between sixty and sixty five years receive the household benefit package where their deceased spouses were in receipt of disability allowance for a period over one year before their deaths; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21429/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity/gas allowance, telephone allowance and free television licence schemes, is generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over, who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. People aged over 70 years of age can qualify for the household benefits package regardless of their income or household composition. The package is also available to carers and people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments such as disability allowance.

Those aged under 70 must live alone or only with certain excepted people in order to qualify. Excepted people for the purposes of the scheme include qualified adults, dependent children under age 18 or under age 22 if in full time education, people who are so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months, people who would qualify for the allowance in their own right, people who are providing constant care and attention to any member of the household who is so incapacitated as to require constant care and attention for at least 12 months.

Widows and widowers aged from 60 to 65 whose late spouses had been in receipt of the household benefit package or free travel retain that entitlement. This measure is in place to ensure that households who have this entitlement do not lose it on the death of a spouse.

Ned O'Keeffe (Cork East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 335: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if a companion free travel pass will be made available to a person (details supplied) in County Cork. [21438/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Under the terms of the free travel scheme, certain incapacitated people can qualify for a free travel companion pass if they are medically assessed as unfit to travel alone. Where the applicant is under 70 years they must submit a medical certificate completed by their general practitioner providing details of their incapacity.

The application for a companion pass by the person concerned was refused, following a review by the Departments Chief Medical Assessor, on medical grounds. She was informed of this decision in June 2007 and was advised that further medical evidence in support of her application could be forwarded to the Department. The person concerned is already in receipt of a pass which allows her to travel with her spouse/partner.