Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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328. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if proposals will be brought forward for a pensioner travel allowance prior to budget 2019 which would provide an allowance to those in receipt of a State pension who live in a degree of rural isolation (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29504/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Any decision to introduce a travel allowance along the lines suggested by the Deputy would significantly change the nature of the free travel scheme and would have considerable budgetary consequences. Various alternatives to the existing system, including the use of vouchers, have been examined previously by my Department. It concluded that a voucher type system, which would be open to a wide range of transport providers including taxis, would be extremely difficult to administer, open to misuse and unlikely to be sufficient to provide for an acceptable amount of travel.

Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme my Department may award a travel supplement in any case where the circumstances of the case so warrant. The supplement is intended to assist with ongoing or recurring travel costs that cannot be met from the client’s own resources and are deemed to be necessary. Every decision is based on consideration of the circumstances of the case, taking account of the nature and extent of the need and of the resources of the person concerned.

I acknowledge that not all customers have easy access to transport providers participating in the free travel scheme particularly in parts of rural Ireland. A further provision of €10 million was made for the scheme in Budget 2018 to facilitate more private commercial operators joining the free travel scheme for the first time, existing participants adding more routes, and operators returning to the scheme where they had previously withdrawn.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.