Seanad debates

Thursday, 7 October 2004

1:00 pm

Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)
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This matter is straightforward. I am requesting that permits given to people for disabled parking should be extended to include parents of children with autism or Asperger's syndrome. Disabled parking spaces are invariably underutilised. Parents with autistic children have requested that I raise this issue at a national level.

Photo of Brian CowenBrian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this matter and I apologise for the Minister of Transport's inability to attend the House.

Section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 provides that the Minister for Transport may make regulations for the general control of traffic and pedestrians. Traffic and parking regulations made under that section in 1997, together with subsequent amendment regulations, provide the statutory code for the control of traffic, including cyclists, the parking of mechanically propelled vehicles and the use of public roads by pedestrians.

The regulations include a provision that establishes a system for the granting of special permits to disabled persons. The specific provision determines that a disabled person means a person who is suffering from a disability which prevents him or her from walking or causes undue hardship to a person in walking. This new scheme, which encompasses all disabled persons, superseded a previous scheme limited to drivers who were disabled.

The regulations establish that a person who holds a disabled person's permit is exempted from certain restrictions and prohibitions that are applied to the parking of mechanically propelled vehicles. In particular, vehicles, other than those used for the carriage of a person who holds a disabled person's permit that is displayed in the vehicle, are prohibited from parking in a disabled person's parking bay.

The regulations provide that a disabled person's parking permit may be granted by a local authority, the Irish Wheelchair Association or the Disabled Drivers Association. It is therefore a matter for each of those organisations to determine whether a disabled person's parking permit should be granted based on each application submitted to it.

While the Minister for Transport has no direct involvement in respect of the determination of individual applications made to any of those bodies, he is aware of the need to promote, on an ongoing basis, the accessibility needs of disabled persons. The disabled persons permit scheme has made a significant, positive contribution in meeting those needs. The Minister will support future developments that further enhance its effectiveness, including direct representations by Senator Browne to those who have the authority to license such permits, namely, the local authority in which such a person would reside, the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Disabled Drivers Association. I will ask the Minister for Transport to write to those organisations in support of the proposal being made by the Senator to see if they will be able to deal with it more positively than has been the case until now.