Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his response. I know that he is disappointed. I am disappointed myself that I cannot do this at this stage. The overriding criterion is mobility. Until we change that criterion, to grant it to other cases, however deserving - I do not dispute for one moment how deserving they are - would be changing the criteria back to when they were changed to their current form in 2010. I can guarantee the Deputy that he is not the only one who has made representations on this matter, not just in respect of Alzheimer's disease and dementia but also in regard to other diseases, a diagnosis of which it has been suggested should qualify people to use disabled parking spaces. I will keep it under review. The numbers the Deputy mentioned are huge. To open it up to everybody suffering from diseases which are not mobility-affected would be impossible to implement. There just would not be enough spaces. The case the Deputy has made on behalf of those two particular groups is something I will look at again in the next few months.

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