Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tomorrow is the tenth anniversary of Ireland signing up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Incidentally, the convention has not yet been ratified. In that context, when does the Government intend to restore the motorised transport grant? I asked the Taoiseach that question on 1 February, exactly two months ago. He told me that he would take a personal interest in the matter and that he would shortly be in a position to give me a date. The only problem with the answer was that it was exactly the same as what he had told me two months previously. The difficulty is that thousands of vulnerable disabled people have potentially qualified for the motorised transport grant since it was abolished for new entrants in 2011. This has been going on for five years. My appeal is on behalf of those people. Will the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform indicate when the Government intends to grasp this particular nettle?

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