Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Regional Group on raising this important matter, taking in the primary medical certificates and the lack of personalised transport supports for people with disabilities. It is something that is discussed regularly at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Disability Matters meetings, and it is also raised at practically every meeting I attend with disabled people or their representatives organisations. People with disabilities should be able to live full and active lives within their communities but many obstacles remain that work to prevent them doing so, and access to personal transport is one of them.

Improving access to public transport is important in its own right, but it is unreasonable to suggest it can address the transport needs of many disabled people who may live in rural areas or struggle to get to bus stops or stations. Many disabled people have told me it is impossible to get a wheelchair-accessible taxi when they order one as the HSE seems to have contracted many of them for its own use. I am interested in the scheme referenced by the Minister of State in the CHO areas in Dublin and that is something that could be rolled out to other areas as well. Without access to personal transport, many disabled people cannot do what others take for granted, including working, visiting family and friends, shopping or any other aspect of life where mobility is essential.

In a report before Christmas entitled Grounded - Unequal Access for People with Disabilities to Personal Transport Schemes, the Ombudsman focused attention on the fact that personal transport supports for people with disabilities are inadequate, unfair and inequitable. The report points out that in 2013 the Government decided to discontinue both the mobility allowance and the motorised grant to new applicants. At that time, it was said that an alternative scheme would be drawn up but we are nine years on and no alternative has been put in place.

The report also indicates that the remaining supports available for people living with a disability comprise the disabled driver and disabled passenger scheme, which provides a range of tax reliefs linked to the purchase and use of specially constructed or adapted vehicles by drivers and passengers with a disability. However, it goes on to highlight that the scheme is inadequate to meet the needs of many people living with a disability as the limited medical criteria for eligibility are excessively restrictive. Moreover, a recommendation that the Department of Finance would introduce legislation to replace the existing medical criteria with an overall assessment of general mobility was never acted on. It is shameful that in 2022 disabled people are still not able to participate equally and actively in their community and work.

It recently emerged that the entire appeals board of the scheme resigned after expressing concern about how the scheme was being handled and amid ongoing concerns it is too difficult to obtain a primary medical certificate. I am not surprised. In looking at the figures, from 401 appeals assessed in 2017, only 12 were successful. In 2018, there were 20 successful appeals from 386 and in 2019, there were nine successful appeals from 424. In 2020 there were four successful appeals from 116, and that was the year the scheme was suspended for much of the year.

These matters have been raised repeatedly with the Government and the Minister for Finance is totally failing in demonstrating leadership here. The people with disabilities are paying the price. Many disabled people are effectively being denied the ability to travel due to the stringent criteria for obtaining a primary medical certificate. This is denying disabled people their rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, to live fully independent lives. This can have a major impact on personal lives if people are unable or less able to live independently, socialise and work without these vital supports.

Over the past 18 months we have seen a litany of failure in how the scheme has been handled by the Department of Finance and this must change. There was a Supreme Court ruling in June 2020 that overturned the board's decision to deny two families a primary medical certificate. This ruling led to the suspension of the scheme, which was reopened in January 2021 after an amendment in a finance Bill. This was supposed to be an interim measure and a review of the scheme was promised by the Minister for Finance in January 2021, to be carried out within the year. It was never delivered and in recent media comments, the Department of Finance confirmed it had not carried out the review committed to by the Minister. We are now 20 months after that Supreme Court ruling.

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, should answer questions about his total failure in how this scheme is being handled. There is a direct breach of the provisions of the UNCRPD, which this country ratified in 2018 but is some way off implementing. I do not feel there is any sense of urgency in addressing the matter of personal transport options for the affected people. The transport working group established two years ago seems to have done very little as part of the national disability inclusion strategy. Perhaps it is another victim of Covid-19 but maybe that is another excuse to delay the process. An immediate review of these schemes is required, with input from disabled persons or organisations and other relevant stakeholders. It must include detailed actions to widen eligibility to the scheme and improve administration.

See this speech in context