Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is correct that it is a function within the Department of Health. There are two elements to this issue. We all know the primary medical certificate function sits within the Department of Finance. The role of the Department of Health in the context of the primary medical certificate is to carry out the assessments through community-based primary care teams. The Department has an assessment function but does not have a funding function. The court judgment that was issued in June or July of 2020 clearly stated that the underpinning legislation needs to be looked at. The Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has written to the Department of Finance to ask the Minister to start that review process.

Regarding the other two options within the Department of Health, a working group was established by the then Department of Justice and Equality under action 104 of the national disability inclusion strategy to review transport supports, encompassing all Government-funded transport and mobility schemes for people with disabilities, and that is ongoing. The Cost of Disability in Ireland study is another piece of the jigsaw. The two schemes to which the Deputy referred are the responsibility of the Department of Health, but conversations about them are happening with the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. Both Departments have been involved in a review over recent months.

Since I came into office, I have also met the Minister for Transport to discuss ways to expand transport schemes. We have discussed the deployment of new buses that meet our accessibility criteria. I have also been discussing the unequal piece to which the Deputy referred, whereby some people have the mobility allowance while others do not. I accept it is unjust and unequal but it is being reviewed. A new scheme is being prepared.