Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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135. To ask the Minister for Finance why primary medical certificate appeals for tax relief for disabled drivers are not held on a regional basis, given the unfairness of having persons with severe disabilities travelling to County Dublin for appeal hearings; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14079/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, a Primary Medical Certificate is required to claim the tax reliefs provided under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Scheme.  The Senior Medical Officer for the relevant local Health Service Executive administrative area makes a professional clinical determination as to whether an individual applicant satisfies the medical criteria to receive a Primary Medical Certificate. An unsuccessful applicant can appeal the decision of the Senior Medical Officer to the Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal, which makes a new clinical determination in respect of the individual.

Hearings of the Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal are held on average twice a month at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire, which has the facilities to cater for people with mobility impairing disabilities of the kind provided for under the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Scheme.

The Medical Board of Appeal holds regional clinics as demand arises. I'm informed that one clinic per year, for the past four years, has been held in Cork City. A regional clinic is scheduled for September this year in the Mercy University Hospital, Cork City.   

Regulation 6(1)(e) of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concession) Regulations 1994 (S.I. 353 of 1994) mandates that the Medical Board of Appeal is independent in the exercise of its functions.