Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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69. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of extending the disabled drivers and disabled passenger scheme to visually impaired persons that are unable to obtain a driving licence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3738/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Drivers and Passengers with Disabilities (Tax Concessions) Scheme provides relief from VAT and VRT (up to a certain limit) on the purchase of an adapted car for transport of a person with specific severe and permanent physical disabilities, assistance with fuel costs, and an exemption from Motor Tax.

As the Deputy will be aware, to qualify for the Scheme, an applicant must have a permanent and severe physical disability within the terms of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations (S.I. 353 of 1994) and satisfy one of the following six qualifying criteria:

- be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both legs;

- be wholly without the use of one leg and almost wholly without the use of the other leg such that the applicant is severely restricted as to movement of the lower limbs;

- be without both hands or without both arms;

- be without one or both legs;

- be wholly or almost wholly without the use of both hands or arms and wholly or almost wholly without the use of one leg;

- have the medical condition of dwarfism and have serious difficulties of movement of the lower limbs.

The Scheme represents a significant tax expenditure. Between the Vehicle Registration Tax and VAT foregone, and the repayment of excise on fuel used by members of the Scheme, the Scheme represented a cost of €50.3 million to the Exchequer in 2015, an increase from €48.6 million in 2014. These figures do not include the revenue foregone to the Local Government Fund in the respect of the relief from Motor Tax provided to members of the Scheme.

I regularly receive correspondence from individuals with disabilities that do not meet the criteria but who believe they would benefit from the Scheme.  The Scheme and qualifying criteria were designed specifically for those with severe physical disabilities and are, therefore, necessarily precise.

While I have sympathy with those who do not qualify for Scheme, I cannot, given the scale and scope of the Scheme, expand it further within the current context of constrained resources.

Furthermore, it is not possible to cost the extension of the scheme in the way the Deputy has requested.