Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to thank my colleagues for bringing this motion forward and I thank our administrator, Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, for the excellent research she did on this it. There is an urgent need for improvements to the benefits available to people with disabilities who are holders of primary medical certificates under the disabled persons and disabled passengers scheme. Primary medical certificates are issued to people who have a severe and permanent disability which generally restricts their movements. Most need a wheelchair to get around. Up to now, holders of such certificates could qualify for an exemption from VAT and vehicle registration tax, VRT, when buying cars that are accessible or adaptable for wheelchair use. These exemptions have substantially reduced the ultimate cost to the buyer, who is typically a wheelchair user or a carer of a wheelchair user, including parents of children with serious disabilities. These are people who already have to cope with huge expenses associated with a disability. Most adapted vehicles are equipped with a ramp that enables a wheelchair or a mobile scooter to get into the car. The floor of the vehicle may have been lowered to allow significant head height.

There is a crisis looming for these people, however, because the manufacturers who make the cars that are wheelchair adaptable are switching over to making only electric vehicles. This is a problem that is looming large now, not just something that is going to arise as we approach 2030, the year by which sales of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned. While electric vehicles up to a certain value are exempt from VRT, they are way more expensive than the diesel or petrol models that have been used by these families and individuals up to now. We are talking about an increased cost of perhaps €10,000 to €20,000 that they will face just to make it possible to do basic things like get to work, go to the shops, bring a child to school or to attend medical appointments. Earlier this month, the Minister for Transport announced a €15 million scheme that will offer taxi drivers up to €25,000 to switch to electric vehicles, including a grant to make them wheelchair-accessible. That is something that taxi drivers will no doubt be very happy with, helping them to make what would otherwise be an expensive transition to electric-powered vehicles. The families and individuals that I am talking about need to be helped in exactly the same way. That is why I am urging the Government to offer holders of primary medical certificates the same kind of financial assistance as the taxi drivers. As I mentioned earlier, they already face mounting expenses that people without a disability do not incur. Most people simply could not afford to pay the huge jump in costs involved in buying an electric car. In light of this and in addition to being exempt from VAT, they should also be given a financial grant that would bridge the difference between the cost of buying a wheelchair-adaptable diesel or petrol car and the new increased cost of buying an electric car.

The programme for Government published by the coalition parties in June 2020 contains a commitment to making a difference that will make things better for people with a disability in this country. It stressed the need to improve the services available and promised to empower and give those with a disability the ability to choose the supports that most meet their needs. One of the most basic needs of a person with a disability, or their carers, is the ability to access transport that is suitable to their needs and which enables them to live their best life. To do that, in the years to come they must be given additional financial assistance that will enable them to continue to buy the wheelchair-accessible vehicles that they absolutely need.

I thank the Government for accepting our motion. I again thank my colleagues for bringing the motion before the Dáil and Ms Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh for the excellent work she did on it.

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