Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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572. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if persons that are on the wage subsidy scheme but that are no longer in receipt of the disability allowance and that apply for their new public services card will not lose their free travel pass. [41563/17]

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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573. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if persons employed by a company (details supplied) will be automatically eligible for the free travel pass when they apply for the new public services card. [41564/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 572 and 573 together.

The “Make Work Pay” initiative was introduced on the 6 April 2017. This initiative extends a free travel entitlement for a period of five years where people with a long term disability payment move off the payment to get a job. The following schemes are considered as long term disability payments and any person who moves directly from these schemes to employment will be entitled to retain their free travel entitlement for a further period of five years, providing all other conditions of the free travel scheme are met.

- Disability Allowance (DA),

- Invalidity Pension (INVP),

- Invalidity Pension to Partial Capacity Benefit,

- Disablement Benefit paid along with Incapacity Supplement,Customers who transferred from DA/INVP to a Community Employment Scheme,Customers who transferred from DA/INVP to a SOLAS Scheme,

- Customers who transferred from DA/INVP to a Back to Work Scheme,

- Customers who transferred from DA/Disablement Benefit and Incapacity Supplement /Blind Pension to a Wage Subsidy Scheme,

- Customers who transferred from DA/INVP to Willing Able Mentoring (WAM)

You will appreciate that employment with the company concerned does not of itself automatically qualify someone to retain their free travel entitlement.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.