Jerry Cowley (Mayo, Independent)
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Question 530: To ask the Minister for Transport if disabled parking disks will become available for the parents of autism sufferers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34468/06]

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 to a person who is suffering from a disability that is of a nature that prevents him or her from walking or causes undue hardship to the person in walking.

The qualifying criterion centres on the issue of a person being unable to walk at all or, if ambulatory, having significant mobility impairment. Eligibility has to be determined on a case by case basis and it is not proposed to extend the application of the scheme across the board on a blanket basis to parents of autism sufferers.