Marie Moloney (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The title of this matter speaks for itself. I have been contacted by a number of parents of children with Down's syndrome, who have told me that they are constantly driving their children - including their adult children - to and from work, swimming, physiotherapy or whatever they need, and they never receive any help whatsoever. I am asking that the primary medical certificate be extended to cover people with Down's syndrome. I understand the criteria for someone to qualify for a primary medical certificate, which the Minister of State will most likely lay out in his answer.

I know the qualifying criteria off by heart. An applicant needs to be without the use of one or two limbs and so on. Many people with Down's syndrome are very immobile, tend to be overweight and find it difficult to get around. Does the Minister of State know who William Loughnane is? I guess many Members would not know of him and neither did I until I did a little research. William Loughnane is a 26 year old Special Olympic gold medalist and the first and only person with Down's syndrome in Ireland to receive his driver's licence. There is one person in Northern Ireland and one person in southern Ireland with Down's syndrome who has a driving licence.

The Minister of State can imagine the pressure on parents with a child with Down's syndrome and a number of parents have contacted me. When one lives in rural Ireland, one is many miles away from facilities, as the Minister will well know, and from a little job one's child may have with Down's Syndrome Ireland, the Network of People with Disabilities or an employer who takes on a person with a disability and gives them a few hours work a week. The person with a disability must be driven to their job because they cannot drive themselves. A mother who is a widow has contacted me and she has to do all the driving as she does not have anyone to share it with her. She is exhausted, completely tied down and is managing under financial difficulties and stress. In some cases she has to make two journeys in that she drives to the facility and home and then drives back to collect her child.

I have been fighting for a primary medical certificate to be granted to people with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease, motor neurone disease and other diseases. The criteria are very rigid. Even despite appeals to Dún Laoghaire on the matter, those concerned do not seem to win the fight. They have been told that the position is laid down in the legislation, the criteria are set out and they are outside the criteria. I ask the Minister to consider this proposal in a sympathetic way and to say "yes" to it. These people will more than likely never drive and will probably always be a passenger or a passenger with a disability. I ask that the primary medical certificate be extended to facilitate people with Down's syndrome.