Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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936. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will review a decision to disallow a disabled parking permit in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Offaly; if he will consider including other forms of disability in the issuing of permits other than the inability to walk; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18881/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In 2010 my Department conducted a comprehensive review of the Disabled Parking Scheme. At that time, eligibility for a permit was focused primarily on diagnosis of certain medical conditions - regardless of the condition's impact on a person's mobility. The review report highlighted the fact that many people with particular conditions, but with no serious mobility impairments, were receiving permits.  The effect of this was that people who genuinely had mobility impairments faced greater competition for the limited number of disabled parking spaces available nationally. On the basis of the above, the review recommended revising the eligibility criteria for the disabled parking permit to focus on the limitations on physical mobility. This is in line with the original intention of the scheme. I subsequently brought in Regulations to give effect to this by defining a disabled person, in the context of the disabled parking permit, as ‘a person with a permanent condition or disability that severely restricts his or her ability to walk’.

This remains the position today, and I do not intend to revisit the matter in the immediate future.