Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2004
203 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when a person (details supplied) in County Kildare will be awarded the one parent family allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33184/04]
View answerThere is a statutory obligation, on all claimants of one-parent family payment to satisfy, and continue to satisfy, the conditions for entitlement to the payment. As indicated in previous replies, payment was disallowed in this case on the grounds that the person concerned had failed to disclose all her means. The person concerned subsequently informed the Department that she had changed address and she provided some documentation on her means. The application has been referred to a local officer who has interviewed the person concerned at her new address regarding her means. However, as all the information required to finalise inquiries was not available to the local officer, investigations are ongoing. On completion of the necessary inquiries a decision will be made and she will be notified of the outcome.
Under social welfare legislation decisions in relation to claims must be made by deciding officers and appeals officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no role in regard to making such decisions.
204 Mr. P. Breen asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he will provide increased funding to ECAT in his budget for 2005; and the amount of funding to be allocated and when; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33187/04]
View answerMy Department's free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years, or over; to all carers in receipt of carer's allowance; and to carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance. It is also available to certain people with disabilities and people who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments.
The Department of Transport is addressing the issue of transport in rural areas through the rural transport initiative, RTI. Area Development Management Limited, is managing this scheme on behalf of that Department. My Department has contributed €500,000 to the RTI each year since 2003 and I have secured €500,000 for the initiative for 2005 and 2006. This is to ensure that free travel pass holders continue to have access to community-based transport services.
The organisation referred to by the Deputy is one of 34 pilots participating in the RTI. Payments are made to the 34 groups by ADM, based on estimated free travel passenger journeys. I have been informed by ADM that ECAT were allocated funding in 2004 based on their estimated number of free travel passenger journeys. When actual passenger journey details are available in January 2005 ADM hopes to be in a position to review the payments position and to make any adjustment necessary in respect of 2004 for all of the groups.
205 Dr. Upton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if a person (details supplied) in Dublin 12 is entitled to a free travel pass. [33206/04]
View answerThe person concerned is in receipt of a companion free travel pass which allows any person aged 16 or over to accompany her free of charge when travelling.
Restrictions apply to the scheme on Dublin Bus and on Bus Éireann city services in Cork and Limerick because of pressure on bus capacity at peak commuter times. These bus companies also have concerns about their inability to cater for the increase in commuters if such restrictions were to be lifted for free travel passholders. There are no time restrictions on DART or other rail services. My Department, in consultation with CIE, has arranged in a very small number of exceptional cases to issue a temporary unrestricted pass for a period of up to six months to facilitate unavoidable hospital appointments and to enable the passholder to re-arrange appointments outside of the peak hours. Any extension to these very limited arrangements would present significant problems for CIE services.
The person concerned was issued with a temporary unrestricted pass in November 2001 and this expired on 29 May 2002. On an exceptional basis and in view of the circumstances of the case a further temporary unrestricted pass was issued in June 2002, which expired on 31 December 2002. When this special pass was issued to her she was advised by the Department that she should seek to re-arrange her hospital appointments to enable her to travel outside peak times after the pass expiry date. It is not possible to issue a further unrestricted pass in this case.
