asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider giving free travel vouchers to all widows.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Free Travel Vouchers.
22.
Widows aged 66 and upwards, like all others over pension age, already qualify for free travel. It is not proposed to extend the scheme in the manner indicated in the question.
Does the Minister not consider that widows are at a disadvantage? When they apply for a medical card they are treated as single people and when they apply for the old age pension there is nobody with whom to divide the income. Would the Minister not agree that they should be entitled to free travel?
I can only refer the Deputy to the discussion we had earlier. As I indicated then, every Deputy would have his own priority concerning the extension of the free travel scheme. Deputy Browne was asking to have it extended to the unemployed and Deputy Callanan wants it extended to include widows. It is a question of expense and of priorities.
Can I take it that the Minister will give it consideration?
Yes. All these schemes are reviewed from time to time with a view to their extension to other categories of persons, provided the resources are available.