Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat. It is great to be here. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters, so I do not normally attend the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach. My colleague, Deputy Farrell, indicated that this issue was being discussed today. It is also being discussed at the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. Mr. Deering's predecessor, Mr. Peter Tyndall, was in with us - I believe it was one of his last days in office - to discuss this and the work he had done in his report, which was excellent.

It is alarming that the mobility allowance and the motorised grant scheme were abolished almost nine years ago. There was something wrong with the scheme, as was highlighted in a previous report. It was suggested to me by a Minister that it was being abused. I do not know if that was the case or not but my feeling is that if there were issues around the scheme, they should have been sorted there and then. At every meeting I go to with people with disabilities or their representative organisations, the issue of transport supports comes up. The primary medical certificate criteria are far too stringent. We know that. Instead of the Minister for Finance dealing with that issue, he has amended a Finance Bill to slot in with the stringent criteria, which is terrible. A review was promised a year ago, in 2021, but this still has not happened.

On Friday I shall accompany a person to a hearing for a primary medical certificate. This is his third time to apply. The person has all of his limbs but he does not have the use of all of the limbs. Yet, he keeps being refused. There is no way that he can use public transport because he does not have stability when he walks, and he will not be able to get onto a bus or whatever. He needs personalised transport supports to help him get from A to B. He had relied on his parents to do so but his mother has passed away, and his father had a severe illness and cannot do it anymore. This is what we are seeing more and more.

We discussed this matter earlier in the Dáil Chamber during a Private Members' motion put forward by the Regional Group. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, indicated it is under review as part of the national disability strategy but does the Ombudsman have any indication where that is or how long it will take before they put some of the schemes back in place or adjust them so that the primary medical certificate criteria will change? Does Mr. Deering believe it is purely based on a financial reason rather than on need? I am very conscious that the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was ratified by Ireland four years ago. We must implement it. The optional protocol has not been ratified yet. Is this one of the reasons? This is not the only issue people with disabilities have to fight for. They spend their lives fighting for the supports they need and they should not have to do that. Is this a reason the optional protocol has not been ratified? Does the Government know that people will take them to the EU over the issues such as the transport supports?