Joe Walsh
Question:2 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for Social Welfare the consideration, if any, he has given to giving limited free travel passes to the long-term unemployed in order to facilitate them in attending for interviews. [4034/96]
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Free Travel Scheme.
Joe Walsh
Question:44 Mr. J. Walsh asked the Minister for Social Welfare the plans, if any, he has to extend the free travel pass to the long-term unemployed who gain employment in order to facilitate travel to and from work within a certain specified travel range; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1226/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 2 and 44 together.
The free travel scheme operated by my Department is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, as well as certain incapacitated people under that age who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments. The scheme provides free travel at off-peak periods to eligible people on the main public and private transport services. Currently, about 470,000 people qualify for free travel at an estimated annual cost this year of some £32.7 million.
The Deputy asked if I will give consideration to extending the free travel scheme to enable the long-term unemployed to attend job interviews or to enable employed people, who were formerly long-term unemployed, to attend work within a specified travel range. An extension of that nature would have policy, cost and administrative implications bearing in mind that the scheme is based on spare seating capacity being available on public transport during off-peak hours only. I am not convinced that the Deputy's proposals would represent the most effective use of limited resources.
Priority has been given by this Government to a wide range of pro-employment measures designed to encourage and enable unemployed people, particularly those unemployed for a longer period, to return to work or improve their levels of education, skills and work experience. In relation to the long-term unemployed, the 1996 budget, for example, provided for an additional 5,000 back to work allowances this year, retention of child dependant allowances for 13 weeks after taking up work, increased access to community employment, a special employer subsidy to foster additional employment opportunities and an increase in the number of second chance education places.
In the situation where an advertised job is located some distance from a long-term unemployed applicant, would the Minister not consider providing limited free travel passes — not an extension of the scheme — as a gesture towards reducing the number of long-term unemployed? Such people cannot afford to travel to job interviews, which in many cases are for vacancies which have already been filled. Does the Minister see any merit in giving a limited number of free travel passes to the long-term unemployed who wish to attend job interviews?
I appreciate that the Deputy's intentions are motivated by a desire to facilitate the reintegration of the long-term unemployed into the workforce. In practice, however, his proposals would be unworkable as it would not be practicable to provide temporary passes for the express purpose of attending interviews. Equally, providing a full pass to the long-term unemployed, conditional on its use only for the purpose of attending job interviews, would impose an impossible burden on CIÉ personnel or any other transport operator who would have to seek proof of the purpose of the journey.
In situations where an unemployed person is not in a position to pay the costs of attending a job interview out of their own resources, they have the option of approaching the community welfare officer in their local clinic. If the community welfare officer considers that their needs come within the scope of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme they can be facilitated.
The level of long-term unemployment is the highest on record and from April to October 1995 it increased from 48.1 per cent to 48.5 per cent. We have to look at all avenues and measures to reduce it. This is one such measure and I press the Minister to at least look at it further to see if it could be introduced in a limited way to help those who wish to obtain employment.
I took the Deputy's question very seriously and I have looked into it. However, his proposal is impractical and would not work. I have indicated that the available resources are being targeted in a very specific way to assist the long-term unemployed and I have enumerated the ways in which we have done that in this year's budget.