Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 438: To ask the Minister for Transport the proposals he has to strengthen parking legislation to assist those in the disability sector in view of the difficulties being faced by disabled drivers. [31880/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 enable each road authority to provide designated parking bays on the public roads for sole use by vehicles that display a disabled persons parking permit and which are being parked for the convenience of the permit holder.

I have already provided a series of legislative measures to strengthen and safeguard the operation of the disabled persons parking scheme and I will continue to address this area as required.

From 3 April 2006 I extended the application of the fixed charge system to a range of offences including illegal parking offences. To act as a deterrent against abuse of the designated parking bays I prescribed a fixed charge of €80, which increases by 50% to €120 if not paid within 28 days, for the offence of illegal parking in a designated disabled persons parking bay. This is double the level of fixed charge that I prescribed for other illegal parking offences.

The Road Traffic (Traffic and Parking) Regulations 1997 provide for the grant of a parking permit to a person who is suffering from a disability that prevents the person from walking or causes undue hardship to the person in walking. The permit scheme for use of the designated parking bays is only intended therefore for persons who are unable to walk i.e. wheelchair users or persons who have very restricted mobility.

To assist the bodies who issue the permits and the authorities who enforce the parking law to safeguard the scheme against abuse another measure that I advanced is the amendment of section 115 of the Road Traffic Act 1961 that is provided in section 20 of the Road Traffic Act 2006.

The amendment expands the scope of the offences covered by section 115 to include offences related to any permit issued under the Road Traffic Acts. The disabled persons parking permit comes within the ambit of this provision. The amended section 115 provides that it is an offence to knowingly give particulars that are false or misleading in connection with an application for a permit and that it is an offence to forge or fraudulently alter or use any permit, or fraudulently lend to, or allow a permit to be used by, any other person.

In addition, section 35 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 was amended in section 20 of the Road Traffic Act 2004 to provide an enabling provision to facilitate the issue of permits and enforcement in relation to the use of permits. This amendment gives a power of inspection to Gardaí and traffic wardens in relation to permits and it is intended that the permits issued under the disabled persons parking will come within the scope of this provision.

Finally, the present statutory scheme for grant and use of parking permits is under review in my Department in consultation with the relevant bodies with a view to strengthening the provisions further and to ensure that the scheme is confined strictly to those who meet the restricted mobility criterion.