Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, namely, that the Horticultural Peat (Temporary Measures) Bill 2021 be taken before No. 1 on the Order Paper. We all know the Bill is really important. I commend the Leader on her work on it. It is necessary to stop the hypocritical practice of importing peat.

I wish to highlight the report of the Ombudsman, Mr. Peter Tyndall, called Grounded: Unequal access for people with disabilities to personal transport schemes. I have stood here on many a morning raising the inaccessibility of transport services. I have outlined how each Department is failing in respect of its responsibility to implement the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The scheme for the motorised transport grant and mobility allowance has been closed since 2013. Many of us have raised issues concerning the disabled drivers and passengers scheme and the ridiculous hoops people have to jump through to get a primary medical certificate from the HSE. In 2001, the scheme's criteria were highlighted by a former Ombudsman as being extremely limited and excessively restrictive. I call for a debate on these schemes so we change our rigid, bureaucratic system to allow people to gain access to transport and services and live like the valued people they are in our country. Every day, I receive emails from people who are just blocked out of, or barred from, our society. The time is up on that.