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

The whole focus here is to get away from the situation where disabled people sometimes look at returning to employment but realise they would be better off staying on the disability payment because of the additional benefits they get. I ask that as many changes as possible be made in this regard to encourage as many people as possible to get back into the workforce. The Minister mentioned those who are medically unfit to drive and the free travel pass being extended to them. Could she elaborate on this point? I am unclear as to how someone is deemed unfit to drive. Is this in any way related to the primary medical certificate? Is it different from it?

I refer to the assessment in this regard, because it is very stringent. I am wondering what the criteria would be like to allow someone to be deemed medically unfit to drive. Many people apply for the primary medical certificate but they are not in a position to access public transport, so even the provision of a free travel pass to them would not be of any benefit because there are no public transport services in their areas. It is very difficult, however, to get the primary medical certificate to allow people to avail of the disabled drivers and disabled passengers scheme, so how stringent are the criteria to allow people to be deemed medically unfit to drive?

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