Vol. 436 No. 1
43 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of the discussions in the course of the Committee Stage of the Finance Act, 1993, he is prepared to extend the provisions of section 92 of the Finance Act, 1989, and the Disabled Drivers (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1989 (S.I. No. 340 of 1989), to disabled persons who are without one hand or without one arm.
My Department has recently completed a comprehensive review of the operation of the Disabled Drivers' (Tax Concessions) Regulations, 1989 which provide significant tax concessions to certain categories of qualifying disabled persons with severe mobility problems. In accordance with a commitment I gave on Committee Stage of the Finance Bill, 1993, copies of the review were recently forwarded to the Opposition spokespersons for their consideration and comments. The issue of extending the qualifying medical categories of disability under the Regulations to, inter alia, one-handed and one-armed disabled persons is addressed in the review. While I do not wish, at this stage, to preempt the final outcome of the review before I have received the comments of the Opposition spokespersons, I would have to say that Exchequer constraints demand that the Regulations should remain focused on those disabled persons with severe mobility problems.
