Vol. 357 No. 12
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he is aware that persons accompanying mentally handicapped children on public transport are not entitled to free passes; if he will remedy the situation as a matter of urgency; and if he will make a general policy statement on the matter.
8.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will extend the free travel pass scheme to adult companions of mentally handicapped persons who are in receipt of disabled person's maintenance allowance.
9.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider allowing a mentally handicapped person in receipt of disabled person's maintenance allowance to have a companion travel free with him/her while using public transport.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 8 and 9 together. The free travel scheme applies to all persons aged 66 and over, to blind persons aged 18 and over and to persons receiving social welfare-type payments as permanently incapacitated persons. In addition, the spouses of married pass-holders may travel free when accompanying the holder of a free travel pass.
There is no provision in the scheme whereby a person other than a spouse may travel free when accompanying the pass-holder and there are no proposals for extension of the scheme in this respect. It would not be possible to extend the scheme in the manner suggested without at the same time considering the position of other persons in similar situations. This would have considerable financial implications.
I do not know what the Minister means by his reference to similar situations. Is he aware that most mentally handicapped persons are single people who cannot travel alone and that the free travel pass is almost useless to them? Many of them are kept at home rather than in institutions, at great saving to the State. Surely there should be some way around this problem. Would the Minister investigate further and come back with an early reply by way of a private letter to the three people involved?
There are always a number of requests for extensions of particular schemes. In relation to the free travel scheme there are requests from various categories who consider themselves deserving of it. For example, the widows of former holders of travel passes, if they are under 66 years of age, lose something which they may have enjoyed for many years. There is also the question of the physically handicapped. The original concept was to give free travel to pensioners and certain other categories. It was subsequently enlarged to include spouses. There is no objection in principle to a further enlargement but the cost implications of all extensions must be considered. If an exception were to be made for this category the other groups would also have to be considered. There would be serious cost implications.
Surely the Minister would agree that a mentally handicapped person, could not, because of the nature of his condition, avail of the facility of free travel. They must be considered a special case. Would the Minister inform the House of the cost implications of extending this facility to mentally handicapped persons as a category on their own?
Administratively it would be very difficult to extend the scheme in the way the Deputy suggests. Certain other categories would have just as strong a case for inclusion in the scheme. I refer, for example, to single people over 80 years of age and widowed people who have no spouse to accompany them on journeys. It could be argued that some very elderly people are quite senile. The matter could only be considered in the context of widening the scheme to include all single recipients under 66 years of age, of whom there are approximately 32,000. The number of single recipients over 80 years of age is 47,000. It would cost an extra £5 million.
The case which the Deputy is making is very deserving and one which would merit consideration when resources become available. However, it would administratively be very difficult to apply it solely to mentally handicapped persons when so many other categories could make the same argument. I refer in particular to senile people whose mental capacity is very limited. If they are single or widowed they cannot be accompanied by a travelling companion who is not liable to pay the fare unless he or she qualifies in their own right.
Deputy Allen rose.
We must go on to the next question.
This is a very important question.
They are all important. Presumably they would not be on the Order Paper if they were not.
If the scheme could be confined to certain hours on public transport with a named companion, surely it would only be a paper cost, a transfer from one Department to another with no overall cost to the Exchequer? Would the Minister consider extending this facility to a named companion of a mentally handicapped person?
This brings one back to the degree of handicap but I am sure that any suggestion, including the Deputy's can be examined to see if anything can be done. However, I would not like to raise hopes in this regard because this question has been examined fairly thoroughly from time to time with a view to trying to assist this particular category but the conclusions have always been that it would be impossible to assist this category without assisting all single people who at present qualify for free travel.
