Richard Bruton
Ceist:14 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether all of those with a disability who are in residential care now qualify for travel and companion passes.
Ceisteanna — Questions Written Answers. - Social Welfare Payments.
Entitlement to free travel, including the "companion pass", was extended last year to include recipients of disabled person's maintenance allowance when they entered residential care. Prior to that, persons who, on entering residential care, ceased to be entitled to disabled person's maintenance allowance, lost their entitlement to free travel.
The position is being further improved this year, as announced in the budget. The "companion pass" facility is being extended to persons who had entered residential care before last year's extension and who, prior to entering residential care, had been in receipt of a disabled person's maintenance allowance. This means that all persons in residential care who were previously in receipt of a disabled person's maintenance allowance will now be eligible for the "companion pass".
Brendan Howlin
Ceist:15 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Social Welfare if consideration has been given to providing a free telephone rental allowance to disabled pensioners who reside only with their carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
In order to qualify for a free telephone rental allowance, a pensioner must be either living alone or only with young children or with somebody who is so incapacitated as to be unable to get help in an emergency. A pensioner who is receiving full-time care and attention from a carer does not qualify for the allowance. There are no proposals at present to extend the allowance to cover people in that situation. Such an extension would have cost implications which could only be considered in the light of available resources.