Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Aire, agus b'fhéidir nach raibh sé an-tuisceanach agamsa iarraidh air teacht anseo tráthnóna agus muid cineál ar saoire. Ag an am céanna tá mé ag ceapadh nach bhfaighidh sé iarratas chomh beag leis an iarratas atá mise ag dul a dhéanamh air inniu. Among all the hundreds of cases encountered by the Minister for Social Welfare I do not think any, if acceded to, would cost less money than the one I now advance.
I am making the case for a limited form of free travel to pensioners on the Aran Islands on Aer Arann services throughout the winter. I checked the 1986 census of population and found that at that time there were 226 pensioners on the three Aran islands, of whom between 35 to 40 would be aged 80 or over. Therefore the numbers involved are not great. Nonetheless, they represent a significant proportion of the island population. They have been granted free travel on ferry services already, which over the summer months provides them with a reasonable amount of free travel. However, in winter, particularly in the case of the two smaller islands, sea travel is a most uncomfortable mode of transport. We must also acknowledge that the usage of free travel in winter, particularly in the case of Inishmean and Inisheer, is very limited because the ferry service operates on a few days each week only. This means that if, for example, pensioners want to avail of the free travel service by ferry in the winter from Inisheer they could get the boat free but they would have to pay for two or three nights accommodation if they wanted to visit a doctor or a clinic in Galway. It would cost them more than going on the aeroplane.
Will the Minister consider granting each pensioner on the island five free passes to be used between October and April each year? If each pensioner used the full quota of five passes at a cost of £28 return the total cost per annum would be £31,640. If you accept that many of those pensioners never move off the island — some of them are bedriddeen — and that others would not use all their passes, the probability is that the total cost of such concessions would be £15,000. Even in these times of financial constraints, particularly in the context of the social welfare budget, it is a very modest sum of money. The carrier which would be aided by such seats being taken up, is a company called Aer Arann who at present is in receipt of a subsidy from Údarás na Gaeltachta, a State Agency.
I understand that several people as well as myself made representations to the Department on this question and they have always been met with a similar reply. One objection is that if outbound pensioners from the island were given this concession people not living on the island could look for it in reverse. Under my proposal, this would not be possible. It must be recognised that the principle of special concessions for island dwellers, particularly in getting to essential services like hospitals, is recognised by the two-tier fare system in operation with an existing State subsidy, where an islander resident on the island who buys the ticket on the island gets a cheaper rate than an islander who lives in Galway and wants to visit the island. The other objection is that there are already modern ferry services. I have addressed myself to that but to highlight the reality I will quote from a letter I received:
Sé mo bharúil go bhfuil eagóir dhá dhéanamh ar oileánaigh. Seo sampla de rud a tharlaíonn go minic. Dé Máirt seo caite bhí ar an dochtúir seanfhear 88 bliain d'aois a chur go dtí an t-ospidéal. Bhí an lá go dona agus ba mhór an chontúirt an fear a chur ar an mbád. Bhí ar a iníon taisteal leis agus b'éigean dóibh £56 a íoc ar dhá thicéad fillte.
Dá mbeadh an duine sin ar an mórthír bheadh otharcharr curtha ar fáil, tiománaí agus banaltra agus chaithfidis dul go dtí an teach agus an othar a bhailiú. Is ar an mbord sláinte a thitfeadh an costas sin. Sa chás seo is léir ní amháin nach bhfuil buntáiste ag muintir an oileáin faoi láthair ach go bhfuil siad faoi mhíbhuntáiste mór. In other words in this case an 88 year old man had to go to the hospital on the mainland, where the ambulance would have picked him up. As he was from the island free travel was not available and he and his companion had to pay for two return tickets.
There are people who believe — and it is something that caught me by surprise — that islanders, because they live on an island, do not suffer from seasickness. My experience is that there is no worse sea traveller than your average islander. I know one youngish lady who told me that she got "seasick" in the plane. At least she was on it for only ten or 15 minutes as opposed to being an hour or two hours on the sea. I, therefore, ask the Minister to look favourably on this request. It would be a very limited scheme and would not create any great precedent. We are talking about a public service, a limited number of tickets clearly identifiable which could, if necessary, be administered through the co-operatives as many public schemes are on the island. They could be clearly identified in the pensioner's name which, if not used by the person they were intended for, would be invalid. The total cost of what I propose is in the region of £15,000 per annum.
