Vol. 460 No. 3
491 Mr. S. Brennan asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will consider allowing carers with companion bus passes to use the passes in their own right to facilitate hospital visitation when the cared for person is an in-patient; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1404/96]
Free travel companion passes have been available since 1990 to persons who qualify for free travel as the recipients of social welfare type payments in respect of a disability and who, on account of their disability, are unable to travel alone. The free travel companion pass enables a person 16 years of age, or over, to accompany the pass holder free of charge. The majority of companion pass holders are either blind or mentally handicapped.
At present the passes are available to the following: recipients of blind person's pension from my Department, people getting disabled person's maintenance allowance from a health board who are medically certified that they are unfit to travel alone, recipients of invalidity pension from my Department who are medically certified that they are permanently wheelchair bound and free travel passholders who are being cared for by a recipient of the carer's allowance. It is a condition of the scheme that the passholder be accompanied by the able-bodied person. Any extension of the scheme which would enable the companion to travel alone, even for short periods, would have cost implications which would have to be examined in the context of available resources.
492 Mr. Penrose asked the Minister for Social Welfare if Christmas bonus payments are made to long-stay patients in hospitals-nursing homes who are in receipt of social welfare payments; if so, if these payments should not be included as part of the normal maintenance payments charged by such hospitals-nursing homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1418/96]
The Christmas bonus was introduced originally in 1980 for elderly and other pensioners. It was subsequently extended to include the long-term unemployed in receipt of long-term unemployment assistance. People in receipt of invalidity pension are also covered for the bonus. Patients in hospitals and nursing homes, who are eligible for the bonus, receive the payment in their own right. There is no provision in legislation whereby all or part of the bonus may be paid to institutions as a form of maintenance and there are no proposals to introduce such an arrangement.
