PJ Murphy (Fine Gael)

I rise to speak about the blue badge parking scheme or what would be more correctly referred to as the disabled person’s parking permit. This permit allows persons with severe mobility restrictions to park in disabled parking spaces in our towns, villages and cities throughout Ireland and is issued by the Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland or the Irish Wheelchair Association. People must reapply on either an annual or a biennial basis to have this permit renewed. Just last month in the audiovisual room of Leinster House, one of my own constituents, a fellow south Galway man, Pat Flaherty from Gort, who is a user of the disabled persons parking permit, made a very good point and argument that people who have a permanent disability, a disability from which they will not recover, should not be burdened with the renewal of this permit on either an annual or biennial basis. If the disability is something that is not going to go away and is something the person is going to live with for his or her entire life, there is no reason this permit should not be issued for a period of at least ten years, doing away with the need and the inconvenience of a person to renew this permit. What is a simple job to an able-bodied person such as renewing a permit like this is a much bigger job for somebody who is faced with mobility challenges day to day basis. I call on the issuing bodies of these permits, both the Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland and Irish Wheelchair Association, to look at the issuing of these permits to last for a period of ten years for people who have a permanent mobility disability.