Mr. David Digan:

I am a 39-year-old father of a seven-year-old daughter from County Westmeath. I am a self-advocate single-arm amputee. I have been advocating for change in the primary medical certificate criteria as the 1968 outdated criteria only include six disabilities and the category of single-arm amputees is not one of them. The UNCRPD law is being breached by the Government and my rights are being hindered because of various barriers due to the primary medical certificate, PMC, criteria. I am being isolated from my local community and it is affecting my participation in society on an equal basis with others.

I need to be able to afford to run my car so I can attend hospital appointments in Dublin for both me and my daughter.

I also need to travel to collect my daughter, who lives 20 km away. The free travel pass does not bring me directly to any of these places. My annual car tax is €710 as I have an older car. I am on disability allowance so this is leaving me to choose between food or tax on my car.

I have advocated for myself through social media, newspapers and radio interviews. I have gone to many TDs, who have sent letters to the Department of Finance. I and my partner have emailed the Department of Finance, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, the Minister of State at that Department and the Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar. All of the Ministers emailed back to say that it is the Department of Finance that is over the primary medical certificate. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, at Leaders’ Questions on 30 January 2024 to amend the PMC criteria and in his response, he committed to reviewing the PMC criteria and to talking to the Minister for Finance about the criteria. To date, nothing that was promised has been done.

The Minister for Finance’s private secretary replied to me and my partner and the following was stated in that email: "The Department has carried out a review of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers scheme (DDS) and has found that it is no longer fit for purpose due to the narrow medical criteria on which it is based". The email goes on to say that the national disability inclusion strategy transport working group, chaired by the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, endorsed proposals to replace the DDS and noted that these were clear deliverables for the future. However, its report did not set out the next steps. The talks have been ongoing since 2021 but there has been no change and no steps have been put in place for this proposed new scheme. The board for the primary medical certificate resigned in November 2021 as they too believed the current criteria were not fit for purpose.

The key issue is that the Irish Government is not abiding by the UNCRPD that it signed up to in 2007 and ratified in 2018. It does not meet the needs of a significant group of those with disability impairment. It requires the disabled person, like myself, a single-arm amputee, to prove they are sufficiently disabled. This is isolating individuals with disabilities like myself and not including us as equal individuals in the community.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 26, Title III: Equality, is entitled "Integration of persons with disabilities". I think this needs to be used as a platform by the Irish Government as this will ensure that people with disabilities, like myself, benefit on a personal, social and occupational integration level in society.

I ask members to refer to the evidence I have provided about the UNCRPD on page 11 under “Reasonable Accommodation”. It states that the UNCRPD elaborates for the first time in a legally binding international human rights convention the concept of reasonable accommodation, explicitly linking it to the relaxation of all human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural - and embedding it within the non-discrimination mandate. “Reasonable accommodation” is any facilitated change that is required to enable a person with a disability. "Reasonable accommodation" is also a central theme of the UNCRPD. Article 2 of the UNCRPD states: "'Reasonable accommodation' means necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

Article 5 of the UNCRPD states that the function of reasonable accommodation is to promote equality and eliminate discrimination. The UNCRPD defines the denial of reasonable accommodation as a mode of discrimination. What is discrimination in the eyes of the UNCRPD? It states that discrimination on the basis of disability means any distinction, exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or effect of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. It includes all forms of discrimination, including denial of reasonable accommodation. Therefore, one thing is clear from reading the “Reasonable accommodation” section of my evidence.

It is clear that the Irish Government is not holding up the UNCRPD law as it is in breach of my rights, as a disabled person, and I cannot integrate with my local community socially. I need some sort of independence in my life. Is losing one arm not enough to qualify as disabled? I am paralysed for the rest of my life. I have a long-term disability. The Irish Government last year spent €1.3 million on advertising the fact that disability rights are human rights. If that money was invested in supporting people with disabilities, we would not need this meeting.

People with disabilities must play cat and mouse to find out information to try to get what we are entitled to. The fact I have to speak to the committee about this issue is a disgrace. Being a disabled person is hard enough but now I have to fight for what I am entitled to. I want my independence and do not want to be relying on others for transport. It is shocking that in this day and age, I have to talk to the committee about how, as a disabled person in Ireland, I am being fobbed off by Ministers and not getting help or support from the Government. The least the Government can do is include other disabilities such as single arm amputees in the primary medical certificate, PMC, criteria. This can be done by the members of the committee who are sitting in front of me today as the UNCRPD law is being breached.

We do not need more committees or reports but clear leadership and action. I will continue to highlight this shameful neglect until real and tangible progress is achieved in this area.