Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 229: To ask the Minister for Transport if disabled parking discs will be allocated to parents of autistic or disabled children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39798/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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 i.e. a wheelchair user 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 children with autism or with other disabilities.