Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 246: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will make a statement on the granting of disabled stickers for car use by persons who use the specially designated disabled parking bays throughout the country; his views on whether the current body responsible for distributing such stickers takes full account of a variety of disabilities that persons have given the frustration that many disabled persons have in respect of their inability to obtain such stickers from the Irish Wheelchair Association; and if he will consider reviewing the scheme. [6499/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As I indicated in my replies to Questions No. 319 on 17 November and No. 563 on 26 January last, the Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 empower local authorities, the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Disabled Drivers Association to grant a disabled person's parking permit where they are satisfied that the applicant is suffering from a disability that prevents him or her from walking or causes undue hardship to the person in walking.

The qualifying criterion is therefore a question of personal mobility and no specific medical condition is stipulated in the regulations. It is a matter for each of the issuing organisations to determine whether a disabled person's parking permit should be granted based on each application submitted to it. I have no involvement in respect of the determination of individual applications made to any of those bodies and I am of the view that the current broad basis of this scheme represents the optimum approach.