Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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609. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the estimated costs of abolishing fees for disabled persons’ parking cards. [44340/25]

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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As Minister of State for International and Road Transport, Logistics, Rail and Ports, I have responsibility for the legislation underpinning the Disabled Parking Permit Scheme.

An application for a disabled parking permit incurs a fee of €35 and the permit must be renewed every two years. The purpose of this fee is, firstly, to cover the administrative costs of processing applications and producing permits and, secondly, to support investment in improving the security features of the card. While some countries operate disabled parking schemes without a fee, local authorities in Ireland generally offer free parking to disabled parking permit holders in areas that would otherwise be metered.

Based on the most recent available data, from 2022 when just under 59,000 disabled parking permits were issued, the estimated annual cost of removing the €35 fee to the Exchequer would be approximately €2,000,000.

It is not my intention to abolish this charge.