Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome both witnesses and thank Dr. Lajoie for that comprehensive presentation. It spells out many of the challenges people in society face every day but people with disabilities face those challenges at a higher rate.

Dr. Lajoie mentioned that the qualifying criteria for the primary medical certificate, as has been discussed many times, are extremely stringent. That is why the medical appeals board resigned. The criteria do not include people who suffer chronic illness or pain or people with neurological diseases. It needs to be completely reviewed and the criteria changed to reflect where we are now. We passed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and we need to implement it.

Transport is important for people with disabilities to be able to access work, visit family, go shopping and to do everything everybody else in society is able to do. People with disabilities should be able to do that without having to fight all the time for their rights. Would a large number of MABS clients be disabled? Of those, how many would cite transport costs as being a major problem? From talking to people, I know people who live in rural areas, in particular, have no access to public transport and even if they have, sometimes it is not accessible for them depending on the nature of the disability.

People have told me that when they telephone to book a wheelchair accessible taxi they cannot get one in many areas. Many of them are contracted to the HSE and while there are some available, and they are usually dearer to book than the regular taxi most of us can use, people find it difficult to access them. Is that an issue raised regularly with MABS? We have one of the highest rates of poverty among our disabled population in Europe and also one of the highest rates of unemployment. Obviously, the two are directly connected. While accessible transport may not only be needed for people with disabilities to be able to get to and from work, the lack of it may be an impediment to them taking up work. Has MABS any hopes these schemes will be reviewed, that the criteria will be addressed and the other schemes suspended in 2013 will be brought back into line?