Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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74. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to re-activate the disabled drivers and disabled passengers (tax concessions) scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12461/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring to the fuel grant I am introducing to replace the excise relief element of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Scheme that was revoked at the end of 2014.

In April 2013 the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the excise relief element of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Scheme was incompatible with the EU Energy Tax Directive.

My Department informed the European Commission of my intention to remove the excise relief element of the Scheme at the end of 2014 and replace it with a fuel grant in 2015. The European Commission raised no objections. To give effect to this I signed a statutory instrument in March 2014 (S.I. 139 of 2014) with the effect that Regulation 16 of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations (S.I. 353 of 1994) would be revoked as of 1 January 2015. In January 2015 I informed members of the Scheme that they should claim any outstanding excise relief due on fuel used up to 31 December 2014.

From 1 January 2015, current and prospective members of the Scheme have been eligible for a fuel grant in respect of fuel used during the year. I intend to maintain the current practice of paying the sum a year in arrears, so that the first payment of the fuel grant will take place from 1 January 2016. I have instructed my officials to design the new grant in such a way to provide a seamless a transition as possible between the excise repayment on fuel element of the Scheme and the new fuel grant and, as I stated in March 2014, members of the Scheme will not be at a loss in the transition.