Vol. 431 No. 3
108 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, in view of the severity of the handicap of a person (details supplied) which necessitates her using a walking frame, he will review the entitlement of her sister to a free companion travel pass.
I introduced the free travel companion pass in 1990 as an extension of the existing free travel scheme. This pass entitles certain cetegories of incapacitated people who are unfit to travel alone, and any other person over age 16 who accompanies them, to free travel. The main categories of people to whom a companion travel pass is issued are those in receipt of a blind pension from my Department or a disabled person's maintenance allowance from a health board, and who satisfy certain qualifying conditions. Such free travel passes are not issued to travelling companions in their own right.
I have recently extended the free travel scheme further to enable persons who are in receipt of an invalidity pension and who are wheelchair bound to qualify for the companion pass, with effect from 1 June 1993. This extension is intended to overcome the special difficulties that invalidity pensioners in wheel-chairs have in travelling alone on public transport.
Any further extension of the companion free travel pass arrangement would have to be examined in a budgetary context.
