Dr. Nicky Scaramuzzi:

Many people become desperate because they feel they are not supported, especially with children. People with a disability feel desperate because this is the only transport option they have. They have nothing else. We are not dealing with the cohort of people who cannot afford to buy the car even if it is tax free. I work in Dublin 8 and we do not get many applications because even with the primary medical cert, these people cannot afford a car. It is unacceptable that there are young people who cannot work for that reason.

We have a reversal of what should be happening. Instead of people coming in and being asked what they can do they are being asked to prove how bad they are. We tell them they need to be disabled and that in addition to being disabled they need to fit into these criteria. Then, on appeal, the majority are not disabled enough. It is a shameful way to practise. We are forcing a situation where in some cases people are desperately underplaying their levels of function in order to access transport. With children we place ourselves at risk because we tell parents their child will not walk. If that child does walk we are at risk because it is traumatic for parents. They could come back to us and say they were traumatised. The whole experience for the people who come in, whether they are adults or adults with a child, is traumatic. It is doing harm. This is where we are coming from and have been for a long time.