Ivor Callely
Ceist:100 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social Welfare the costings, if any, which have been presented to his Department to extend the hours of the free travel scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4073/97]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.
The purpose of my Department's free travel scheme is to encourage elderly people to remain active in the community by giving them access to spare capacity on the various public transport systems.
Time restrictions have been a feature of the free travel scheme since its inception. They apply generally from 7 a.m. to 9.45 a.m. and from 4.30 p.m. to 6.30 p.m., Monday to Friday, inclusive, and on Bus Éireann long distance buses from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Fridays for up to 20 miles out from Dublin, Cork or Limerick. They do not, however, apply in the case of mentally-handicapped people, people attending long-term rehabilitation courses and certain other disabled or blind people.
The central issue in regard to time restrictions relates not to costs but to capacity constraints. The time restrictions are in place on city and provincial bus routes because the transport companies concerned are under severe pressure from commuters travelling to or from work or school in the morning and evening.
In the circumstances, I have no plans at present to alter the time restrictions currently applying to the free travel scheme.
Ivor Callely
Ceist:101 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social Welfare the consideration and costings, if any, which have been presented to his Department for an increase in the living alone allowance for social welfare recipients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4074/97]
Ivor Callely
Ceist:102 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Social Welfare the consideration and costings, if any, which have been presented to his Department for an increase in child dependant payments for social welfare recipients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4075/97]
It is proposed to take Question Nos. 101 and 102 together.
The estimated cost of each £1 per week increase in the living alone allowance is £5.4 million in a full year.
It is estimated that each £1 increase in child dependant allowances would cost approximately £21 million in a full year.
Consideration is given to a wide variety of proposals each year in the context of the budget and decisions are made in accordance with their relative priority in the light of the available resources. The cost of the budget improvements this year, almost £114 million in 1997 and £215 million in a full year, represents the largest increase ever allocated for social welfare purposes in a single budget.
Michael Ring
Ceist:103 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social Welfare the Minister who introduced the ruling that a person has to enter insurable employment for the first time after reaching the age of fifty-six to qualify for a PRSI refund; and the way in which many people have availed of this scheme since it was introduced. [4067/97]
To qualify for an old age contributory pension a person must, inter alia, have entered insurance at least 10 years before reaching pension age. This condition has been a feature of the scheme since its introduction in 1961. The purpose of the condition is to link entitlement to a pension with a reasonable level of contributions to the social insurance fund during the course of a person's career. This condition applies to all insured people. Since the introduction of the old age (contributory) pension in 1961 there has been provision for the refund of the old age pension portion of the social insurance contribution where a person enters social insurance for the first time less than 10 years before pension age provided they do not qualify for either an old age contributory or non-contributory pension.
The initial regulation in that regard (SI 139 of 1961) was signed by the then Minister, Mr. Seán McEntee. As the Deputy will be aware, pension age at that time was 70 years. It was reduced to age 66 on a gradual basis during the period 1973 to 1977. The regulation providing that self-employed persons would qualify for a refund unless they had no contributions prior to 1988 was first introduced by the then Minister, Deputy Michael Woods, in 1990.
In my budget speech, I announced that in relation to the self-employed any person who was over 56 in April 1988, when insurance for the self-employed was introduced, and who also had paid social insurance at the full rate at any stage between 1953 and 1988, will receive a refund of the pensions element of their Class S social insurance contributions, provided, of course, that they do not qualify for an old age contributory or non-contributory pension. Up to now their earlier contributions would have prohibited them from receiving such a refund.
If the Deputy has a particular case in mind and can pass on the relevant details I would be happy to have the situation of the person concerned checked out.