Mr. Jamie Kent:

I thank the committee for inviting me here today.

I feel partially one of the luckiest people in the room having heard the speakers who have gone before me today but yet I have a problem which has been going on since 2005. Basically, I am not disabled enough.

I am Jamie Kent from Waterford. A little over 20 years ago, at the age of 28, I suffered an accident while competing in a motorsport event in Cork. It was a split-second that would change my life forever. Before 4 October 2003, I was an active person running a business and living life to the full. That day I broke my knee, my pelvis, my back in two places and had multiple fractures in my skull. Along with this, I also suffered three bleeds in my brain and more in my brain stem. Luckily with the help of the medical team and life-support equipment at Cork University Hospital, I regained consciousness some two and a half weeks later. During a seven-month stay in CUH, I became a toddler all over again. I spent that time learning to walk and talk and I even went back to nappies. At 28, it was truly devastating. From there, I was transferred to the NRH for an extra two and a half months' further rehabilitation.

The years that followed involved extensive physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and follow-up operations. Now I live as a traumatically acquired brain Injury "survivor" in receipt of invalidity pension due to my high level of disability. My injuries left me with paralysis down my left side. With time and determination, some use has come back in my left leg, making it a little easier to get around.

In 2005, I applied for a primary medical certificate so I could have some relief under the disabled drivers and passengers scheme. This was instantly denied on the grounds that at that stage I had one good arm and one good leg and therefore did not qualify under the strict rules laid out by the Government. As the committee will be aware, to qualify for tax relief under the scheme, you must have a valid primary medical certificate. Naturally, I appealed the decision to the disabled drivers medical board of appeal at the NRH, but my appeal was rejected. I have applied five times since and have been rejected four times. On the fifth attempt the board of appeal was suspended so I was left with nowhere to go.

Between all my applications, I have spoken to TDs, a Senator and medical professionals in the hope that they might be able to help me, but the answer has always been the same: that the criteria needed to obtain a PMC are so strict that their hands are tied and there is nothing they can do. I feel this is a disgrace and clearly breaches the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The criteria needed to obtain a PMC are so archaic that it is not fit for purpose in today's world.

As I have said, I am in receipt of invalidity pension but I also have a disabled parking permit and a plus-companion travel pass due to my mobility and balance issues being so bad. On refusal of my first application for a PMC, I was successful in acquiring a motorised transport grant, which are no longer available, to adapt my car to my needs. To sum up, the system is totally mixed up. How can numerous Departments recognise my disability yet one stands alone and rejects my disability repeatedly, saying I am not disabled enough? In effect, the State is contradicting itself.

Even today, sometimes I am not able to use public transport if there is nobody available to escort me on my journey. Travelling by car, while the safest option, is expensive for a person like me with no relief on fuel or parking close by, not to mention no remission of vehicle registration tax, VRT, and repayment of value-added tax for the purchase of the vehicle, road tax, tolls, etc.

How can we ensure access and human dignity in public services? The requirements for a primary medical certificate, I feel, need a complete overhaul. The tax relief scheme applicable on obtaining a primary medical certificate would greatly improve my quality of life for my remaining years living with a disability. Broadening the criteria applicable to obtaining a medical certificate would greatly improve the quality and independence of life for people like me. As the cost of living is increasing day by day, if we could avail of the disabled drivers and passengers scheme as we have to drive an adapted vehicle, it would ensure we could drive without the worry of rising costs associated with such a vehicle. As I constantly live in chronic pain, my need for a PMC is only going to become more acute, so the criteria need to change for me sooner rather than later. It is not that we want to get something from the Government; we just do not want to pay something that was against the UNCRPD in the first place.