Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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37. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason the disabled person’s parking card (known as the blue badge) has to be renewed every two years; if he will review this requirement given the difficulty it poses for disabled people (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33073/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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As Minister of State for International & Road Transport, Logistics, Rail & Ports, I appreciate that the two-year renewal requirement for the Disabled Parking Permit may be inconvenient for permit holders with permanent mobility impairment.

While most permit holders are fully compliant with the scheme, it is important to maximise security and minimise opportunities for fraud and misuse. A defined validity period restricts the time for which a lost or stolen permit, or a permit for a person who is since deceased, can continue to be used.

An Garda Síochána, as part of Operation Enable since 2017, identified the latter as a particularly widespread problem, even within the current two-year limit. To extend the validity period would greatly expand the potential for this kind of fraud, which takes disabled parking bays away from those who need them and undermines the scheme as a whole.

Accordingly, the bodies responsible for issuing permits on the Department's behalf, the Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland and the Irish Wheelchair Association, consistently stress the need to be able to keep track of who possesses a permit and to ensure that permits issued to people who have since died are taken out of circulation as quickly as possible, either by notification or expiry.

For these reasons, my Department has no plans to extend the current validity period for disabled parking cards.