Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 546: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the action taken to introduce free travel for Irish citizens of pension age, particularly those resident in the UK, while visiting here and to get the European Commission to examine a Europe-wide system; if the plastic card has been brought in instead of a paper system; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27205/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over and to people receiving certain disability or care payments.

Proposals to extend the free travel scheme to Irish born people living abroad and those receiving pensions from my Department have been examined and, in this regard, officials of the Department have engaged in discussions with EU Commission officials. However, at this stage, it has not been possible to progress the matter as, under EU legislation, discrimination on grounds of nationality is prohibited.

More recently, the European Commission has indicated that to extend the scheme to people in receipt of an Irish pension could also be considered discriminatory.

The Department is co-ordinating an interdepartmental initiative to develop a public services card. This programme of work is known as the SAFE (Standard Authentication Framework Environment) initiative. It has been agreed that the first iteration of the new card will be a replacement for the existing free travel pass.

The new card, which will include photo identification, will introduce a number of improvements, including an improved registration process and new card technology which will bring improved security features.