Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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Question 293: To ask the Minister for Finance if the medical criteria for Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations 1994 will be amended to allow easier qualification; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34390/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The medical criteria for eligibility for the tax concessions under this scheme are set out in the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations 1994. A person must be severely and permanently disabled and satisfy one of the following conditions: be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both legs; be wholly without the use of one leg and almost wholly without the use of the other leg such that the applicant is severely restricted as to movement of the lower limbs; be without both hands or without both arms; be without one or both legs; be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both hands or arms and wholly or almost wholly without the use of one leg; have the medical condition of dwarfism and have serious difficulties of movement of the lower limbs.

A special interdepartmental review group reviewed the operation of the disabled drivers scheme. The terms of reference of the group were to examine the operation of the existing scheme, including the difficulties experienced by the various groups and individuals involved with it, and to consider the feasibility of alternative schemes, with a view to assisting the Minister for Finance in determining the future direction of the scheme.

The group's report, published on my Department's website in July 2004, sets out in detail the genesis and development of the scheme. It examines the current benefits, the qualifying medical criteria, the Exchequer costs, relationship with other schemes and similar schemes in other countries. The report also makes a number of recommendations, both immediate and long term, encompassing the operation of the appeals process and options for the future development of the scheme.

Following from the report's immediate recommendations concerning the appeals process, amendments to the regulations governing the scheme have been made by my predecessor, and subsequently by me, in April and again in September to improve the operation of the appeals process. These amendments included providing for an expansion of the panel of medical practitioners serving on the medical board of appeal from three to 15, which will substantially reduce the waiting time for appellants.

In respect of the long-term recommendations, including the qualifying medical criteria, given the scale and scope of the scheme, further changes can only be made after careful consideration. For this reason, the Government decided in June 2004 that the Minister for Finance would consider the recommendations contained in the report of the interdepartmental review group in the context of the annual budgetary process having regard to the existing and prospective cost of the scheme.