Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter and thank the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, for coming to the House to reply.

The Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the Minister of State will be familiar with this case. In the past ten or 15 years I have repeatedly raised the issue of primary medical certificates and the qualification they entitle to the bearer. There are considerable discrepancies with regard to those who qualify and those who do not. The rules are extraordinarily rigid, yet constituents will on occasion point out that they know somebody who has a primary medical certificate but is in a position better than or equal to the position of the constituent. I wish to raise one such case.

The qualifying guidelines state applicants must be wholly or almost without the use of both legs; wholly without the use of one of their legs and almost wholly without the use of the other leg such that they are severely restricted as to movement; or without both hands or without both arms. We do not have be medical experts to work out that persons would qualify in such extreme circumstances. However, it is extraordinary the guidelines do not refer to persons with the use of one arm and one leg.

In the case to which I refer, the applicant, who was an athletics coach, had a severe stroke. He is not in the business of exaggerating his condition but his brain is working perfectly, he has a functioning role in society and wants to travel to work but cannot afford to do so. The stroke severely restricted the use of one side of his body, as often happens in such cases. As a result, he has had to stop work.

I raised this issue on the Adjournment in June last. The person wrote a plaintive letter to me on 5 November in which he referred to the number of occasions on which he had been examined. In each case the examination consisted of a chat and a kind of walkabout, followed by a medical conclusion — I cannot understand how it works in this fashion. He appealed his case and was called to the health centre on 28 August last and was again unsuccessful, despite the fact that the community health doctor did not physically examine him in any way.

The applicant knows a number of other people in the area who have qualified for such certificates who are no worse or better off than he, although he has had to come to that conclusion without a medical examination. Let us not forget he is an athletics coach and has some knowledge on these matters. He would like to return to work and continue to make a contribution to society. He can do so but he has repeatedly been refused a certificate.

I do not blame the Minister of State for this situation. Will he contact whatever bureaucrat is in control? Once and for all, we need to liberalise the system, let a little clarity into the arena and allow the decision to be made that where persons are severely restricted on one side of the body, the certificate will be awarded. There are countless similar cases.

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