Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 547: To ask the Minister for Transport if he will bring into force a special blue card system similar to that in force in Great Britain and Northern Ireland whereby people with disabilities over the age of 18 years of age are issued with a blue card; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10392/05]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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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, of any age, is suffering from a disability that prevents him or her from walking or causes undue hardship to the person in walking. It is a matter for each of the issuing organisations to determine whether or not a disabled person's parking permit should be granted based on each application submitted to it. The qualifying criterion, therefore, centres on the issue of mobility impairment and no specific medical condition is stipulated in the regulations. I am of the view that the current scheme, based on the personal mobility of the applicant, represents the optimum approach for the issue of these particular parking permits.