Elderly and disabled air travellers will be entitled to extra help for free from airports and airlines during their journeys under European Commission legislation.
The legislation has been tabled because of the failure of airlines and airport authorities to agree on which of them should help passengers needing assistance during journeys.
The extra costs will be shared among all air travellers, the Department of Transport has told the Oireachtas committee that scrutinises all EU legislation.
"The European Commission suggests that 10 per cent of the population would need some assistance and that this figure is likely to increase as the numbers of aged people increases," Bernard Allen, the Fine Gael TD who chairs the committee, said.
Once in place, the legislation will mean that passengers suffering from reduced mobility cannot be banned from travelling "on the grounds of their lack of mobility, except for justified safety reasons".
The services, organised by airport authorities, should be run by a specially-created body at each airport and should operate "without interruption or delay", the commission has said.
"Assistance should be financed in such a way as to spread the burden equitably over all passengers using an airport and to avoid disincentives to the carriage of passengers with reduced mobility.
"A charge levied on each airline, proportionate to the number of passengers it carries to or from that airport appears to be the most effective way of funding," the commission has said.
However, airport authorities should be given 24 hours notice that assistance is required. If it is not, the airports will be required to make "all reasonable efforts" to help the passenger.
Ryanair and the British Airport Authority at Stansted last year were both found to have unlawfully discriminated against a disabled man by charging him for the use of a wheelchair.
The British Court of Appeal, which heard the case after Ryanair challenged a lower court ruling against it, ruled that the airline and Stansted airport had a shared responsibility to provide a wheelchair service to disabled passengers.
Ryanair had initially faced the full blame when it was ordered in January 2004 to pay £1,336 (€2,420) in damages to Mr Bob Ross (54), a community worker from north London. Mr Ross suffers from cerebral palsy and arthritis.
