Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is great to be at this meeting. I am going to change the emphasis for a few minutes, if I may. The Ombudsman issued his report this week on transport supports for people with disabilities, called Grounded - Unequal access for people with disabilities to personal transport schemes. This did not happen on the current Minister's watch or even on my watch. Approximately nine years ago a number of transport schemes that were in place to support people with disabilities were suspended and new schemes were put in place. The Ombudsman writes:

Living with a disability in Ireland in 2021 should never mean that a person is grounded in their home, unable to participate equally and actively in their community and in work. Another working group or action plan is not enough. Those people who are adversely affected by the current lack of access to transport supports require immediate and decisive action.

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I hope this commentary provides a timely reminder to legislators and policy makers as to the urgency of progressing work so that we are not looking at this issue again in another nine years. Progress must now be quick and comprehensive.

I raise this issue in the context of the earlier conversation about the transfer of responsibilities from the Department of Health to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. While that is going on, I fear we will have a situation whereby these schemes, which were being reviewed and redrawn in recent years, are left in abeyance until the transfer process is complete. Then the question is which Department takes responsibility for them. The Ombudsman is saying that two schemes in particular, namely, the motorised transport grant and the mobility allowance, are with the Department of Health. He also commented on the primary medical certificate scheme which the Department of Finance has been looking at since a Supreme Court judgment delivered in 2020. Work is being done on that scheme in an attempt to clarify matters following that court case. The aim is to develop a new scheme but that has been going on for quite some time. The Department of Finance has indicated that it is in consultations with the Department of Health on the matter.

Does the Minister of State know the current situation in that regard? Is it still stuck in the transfer or is somebody actually working on it in the Department of Health? Some people are getting no support while others have support. The situation is both unequal and unjust but it could be solved fairly quickly if we put our minds to it. I do not know who is responsible for this area now.