Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I want to put on record my thanks to my officials and the National Rehabilitation Hospital, NRH, for the efforts to get the appeals board back up and running. That has been my priority for a while and we are making progress in that regard. My officials met with the new appeal board members and the NRH yesterday, 7 November, and a constructive meeting was held. On the basis of this meeting, it is hoped that the appeals board can recommence hearing appeals in the first half of December. That is welcome and I acknowledge all the work that has gone into making that progress.

As a practising politician, I have had quite an amount of experience of dealing with individual constituents who sought access to the scheme but who did not meet the criteria because the criteria are quite strict, rigid and pretty black and white around access to the primary medical certificate, which is the key gateway to accessing this tax relief. That is why the Government brought forward the report of the national disability inclusion strategy by the transport working group, which reviewed mobility and transport supports, including this particular scheme. That report has been published and my Department fed into the work of that review group extensively. It is fair to say that one of the key conclusions is that we need to replace the existing scheme with a needs-based scheme based on an appropriate level of grant support commensurate with need, with the level of disability, and with the costs involved in helping somebody to access transport.

Under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach, officials from the relevant Departments, including my own, and agencies are meeting to discuss the issues arising from the report and to map a way forward. I want this to happen as quickly as possible because I know how important and how urgent it is for those who are affected. My officials are proactively engaging with the senior officials group work as an important step in considering ways to replace the current tax-based scheme as one specific personal transport response and in the context of broader government consideration of holistic, multifaceted and integrated transport and mobility supports for those with a disability. The first meeting of that group was held in July and the second meeting took place earlier this month.

While acknowledging the limitations of the existing scheme, it is worth putting on record that a lot of people are in a position to access the scheme and in a position to benefit from it. When I look at the number of claims in the year to date and the value of the tax relief, it is quite significant. In the year to date for VAT and VRT, for those who have successfully accessed the existing scheme, the relief exceeds €61 million. In addition to that, there is the value of the fuel grant which is a further €9.4 million. Between those two reliefs on VAT and VRT on the one side and the fuel grant, in the year to date more than €70 million has been provided in support. There is also the motor tax relief. On a full-year basis, this typically costs around €10 million per annum.

While acknowledging the limitations of the existing scheme my priority has been to get the appeals board back up and running. There have been considerable difficulties in that regard. It has taken longer than I and my own team would have wished, but there has been a huge amount of work to get it back on track. I look forward to the recommencement of appeal hearings in the coming weeks. That does not fix the issue because the level of successful appeals is quite low given the nature of the eligibility criteria, which are so defined and so strict. In my view, and I believe this view is shared across government, we require a needs-based and grant-based scheme, on which the senior officials group has now met twice and is seeking to advance that particular scheme. I reaffirm my support and the support of my Department for that work. In the meantime, we will ensure the existing scheme continues.

I accept Deputy Doherty's point. The amendment provided for by way of section 81 is not fundamental.

It is not of direct relevance to people who are seeking to access the scheme. We are going to continue to keep this scheme operational until a replacement scheme, and a better one, is put in place.