Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister. It goes without saying there is no issue with setting up the new subhead. I gather there is unlikely to be a payment in 2015, that this is to simply provide for the establishment of the subhead to allow payments to roll out from the start of January 2016. The Minister outlined an estimated cost of €10 million. Is that in the same ball park as the previous arrangement? He mentioned payments can made to drivers, passengers and organisations, which I presume are wheelchair user organisations. Perhaps the Minister would clarify this.

What about a case concerning a child with an intellectual disability? An autistic child, for example, often has particular requirements and this can be disruptive in a car. Under the old scheme, the criteria centred on physical disabilities and were quite stringent. Sometimes there is a requirement to adapt a car in families where disabilities might not be purely of a physical nature. These have not been facilitated up to now. Perhaps the position has changed but if it has not, I ask the Minister to consider including such a provision where the need arises. Parents of children with severe Downs' syndrome may need to modify their car or get a people carrier. People with mental disabilities are being discriminated against vis-à-vispeople with physical disabilities.