Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Is minic muid ag cáineadh an Rialtais, ach inniu ba mhaith liom fáilte, fáilte sheachantach i dtosach báire, a chur roimh an scéal a tháinig thar oíche maidir le cúrsaí iascaireachta agus na comhráití atá ar bun.

I will offer a cautious welcome for last night's announcement on a debate on the discards issue in the EU. We have been raising it constantly with the Minister, who has been working on it. We look forward to a debate when he returns from the negotiations so that we can see what the detail entails before we fully endorse what has been agreed. That it seems to be going in the right direction is good news for fishermen and consumers alike.

I wish to raise the issue of the scrapping of the mobility allowance and the motorised transport grants. This morning, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, mentioned that the HSE was examining the issue in depth. However, that contradicted what she and the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, told the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, namely, that the issue had been under examination for two years. The previous Government did not heed the recommendations of the Ombudsman, who has addressed the committee at length on this issue and on the breach of the Equal Status Act. She neither suggested nor, I imagine, endorsed the scheme's scrapping.

It is important that the relevant available Minister attend the House so that we might examine what will be put in place. In terms of this issue, the most important people are those with disabilities. They need access to transport if they are to be mobile in rural and urban areas where it is difficult to get around or there is no public transport. The Ombudsman has called it a puzzling decision. I was puzzled, having sat and listened to the Minister and Minister of State tell the committee that they were unsure as to which decision they would make. They never indicated that they would take the retrograde step of scrapping the measures without putting in place a replacement scheme to ensure that people with disabilities were catered for.