Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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272. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost of extending the free travel pass to all children in receipt of domiciliary care allowance. [45963/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2024 is €103.5 million.

Providing an accurate projection of the cost of extending the free travel scheme to all children in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance is very difficult as the cost is determined by the usage of the extra passes provided and not by the number of newly qualified people. Therefore, my Department is not able to provide an accurate estimate cost of the measure outlined by the Deputy.

Any decision to extend the Free Travel scheme to those in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance would require additional funding for the free travel scheme and would have to be considered in the context of overall budgetary negotiations.

Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly payment to the carer of a child with a disability. The allowance may be used for the additional costs involved in caring for the child and this may include additional transport costs. In Budget 2025, I announced that Domiciliary Care Allowance will increase by €20 to €360 a month from January 2025. In addition, all recipients of Domiciliary Care Allowance qualify for the Carer's Support Grant in June of each year. As part of Budget 2025 I further announced that the rate will increase by €150 to €2,000 per year for each carer.

Finally, the Department of Social Protection provides Additional Needs Payments as part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme for people who have an essential need, which they cannot meet from their own resources. These payments are available through our Community Welfare Officers and include help towards recurring travel costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.