I thank the Senator for raising this issue. The main objective of the free travel scheme administered by the Department is to encourage older people and people with disabilities to remain independent and active in the community. The free travel scheme permits a recipient to travel for free on most CIE public transport services, Luas and a range of services offered by a large number of private operators in various parts of the country. A pensioner can also travel for free on cross-Border journeys between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Currently 640,000 are customers in receipt of the free travel scheme at an annual cost of €57 million.
Peak time access restrictions apply on Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann provincial city services in Cork and Limerick. The restrictions are imposed from Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. until 9.45 a.m. and from 4.30 p.m. until 6.30 p.m. There are also restrictions on Friday evening travel from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. within a 20 mile radius of Dublin, Cork and Limerick cities. The operators who apply these restrictions have advised that they do so because of pressure on bus capacity at peak commuter times.
With the agreement of the relevant operators, the Department issues unrestricted passes, permitting free travel at peak times to certain customers with disabilities for the purposes of attending educational, long-term rehabilitative and therapeutic courses recognised by this Department. The disability allowance administered by the Department is payable from age 16 years and recipients of this scheme are entitled to participate in education courses either full-time or part-time without it affecting their entitlement to disability allowance and free travel pass. Also, there are 1,000 customers previously in receipt of disability allowance receiving FÁS training at any given time. Secondary benefits are retained by these customers including free travel.
Through its supports and services, the Department has been very successful in assisting and encouraging customers with disabilities to remain within the education cycle. One significant measure is the back to education allowance programme, which is a second chance educational opportunities programme designed to encourage and facilitate people to improve their skills and qualifications with a view to returning to the work force. There were 7,300 participants in the scheme for the 2004-05 year, of whom 650 were customers previously in receipt of illness related payments. Unrestricted travel passes are available to customers with disabilities attending the back to education allowance programme.
Unrestricted travel passes are also available to customers in receipt of disability allowance from the Department who are attending certain third level courses or work of a therapeutic nature, certain long-term rehabilitative courses or who are aged over 16 and studying at a second level school. In addition, customers in receipt of an invalidity pension from the Department, or similar EU or bilateral pension attending therapeutic work may also have an entitlement to an unrestricted travel pass.
Unrestricted travel passes are available to visually impaired customers who satisfy the conditions for the blind pension and are attending certain full-time, long-term rehabilitative courses. Visually impaired children under 18 years of age, who are registered with the National Council for the Blind or the National League of the Blind of Ireland, or who satisfy the conditions for a blind pension, may have an entitlement to an unrestricted companion travel pass. A companion pass allows any one person, aged 16 years or over, to accompany the pass holder for free when travelling.
In addition, since 1997, the Department has successfully negotiated with CIE to issue in a number of exceptional circumstances temporary unrestricted passes for a limited period of six to 12 months to facilitate unavoidable hospital appointments. There are currently some 19,000 unrestricted free travel passes issued by the Department.
A range of other supports is provided by the Department's locally-based facilitators who have access to additional services, such as the special projects and family services funds which provide funding for specialised training and supports. In 2005, 20 special projects catered for people with disabilities at a cost of over €570,000 in addition to 13 family services projects at a cost of some €99,000. The range of services provided by the Department as a means of encouraging persons with a disability to remain within full time education are under constant review and I am satisfied as to their continued relevance and flexibility.
The question of removing restrictions for all tree travel pass holders has been raised on a number of occasions. The Minister is keeping this issue under review and will examine the scope for extending the current arrangements as soon as this can be done.
