Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

When the Minister for Finance was before the committee we asked him what actions he had taken in regard to the concerns raised by the appeal board, all of whom resigned approximately six or seven months after raising those concerns because they felt there had been no action from Government. We had an announcement in January. The story breaks that the appeal board has resigned, blaming the Minister for a lack of action, and that is followed by an announcement in regard to the establishment of an interdepartmental group to look at the issue of transport for people with disabilities, which will be chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte. I am sometimes suspicious of these types of announcements but Mr. Deering has welcomed it.

At the time Mr. Deering's predecessor wrote to the Secretary General of the Department, the matter was before a special Cabinet committee. It is not possible to have it dealt with any higher than a special Cabinet committee. That was over two years ago and nothing happened. Four years ago, a memo was brought to Cabinet in regard to a scheme and it was withdrawn. Four years on, nothing has happened. One would hope that something would come out of it now, but if past experience is anything to go by it does not appear there is any energy, speed or direction in regard to this.