Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 28 January 2014
757. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 334 of 16 January 2014, the reason general travel costs, as distinct from travel to work costs, are not considered as part of the medical card means assessment, in cases where the applicant is dependent on his or her vehicle due to illness or disability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4086/14]
View answerMedical cards are provided to persons who, under the provisions of the Health Act 1970, are in the opinion of the HSE unable without undue hardship to arrange GP services for themselves and their dependants. The assessment for a medical card is determined primarily by reference to the means, including the income and reasonable expenditure, of the applicant and his or her partner and dependants. Under the legislation, determination of eligibility for a medical card is the responsibility of the HSE.
All General Medical Service applications are assessed equitably and impartially by the HSE under the assessment guidelines which provide a clear framework to assist in the making of reasonable, consistent and equitable decisions. These guidelines are publicly available and can be downloaded from the HSE's medical card website.
While there is no automatic entitlement to a medical card for persons with specific illnesses, or with a disability, the HSE has discretion to award a medical card to avoid undue hardship, even where the person exceeds the income guidelines. The HSE has established panel of Community Medical Officers to assist in the processing of applications for medical cards on a discretionary basis, where a person exceeds the income guidelines but where there are difficult personal circumstances, such as an illness or physical disability.
As stated in our previous response, where public transport is not available or suitable and a car is required, reasonable travel costs will be allowed as set out hereunder:
- 18c per km/30c per mile to cover running costs
- car pooling arrangements and any contribution towards costs should be taken into account
- in the case of a couple where they require two cars to travel to work and meet the above requirements, both sets of trips will be taken into account
- the rate per km/mile does not contain any element towards parking costs and where, they are an issue, they should be included on an actual cost basis.
The Government, conscious of the position of the Ombudsman that the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant schemes are illegal in the context of the Equal Status Acts closed both schemes to new entrants on 26th February 2013.
In December 2013, the Government decided that the detailed preparatory work required for a new travel subsidy scheme and associated statutory provisions will be progressed as a priority by the Minister for Health in consultation with other relevant Ministers. In the meantime, payments up to €208.50 per month will continue to be made by the Health Service Executive to current recipients of the Mobility Allowance for a further period, pending decisions on the new statutory scheme.
The Revenue Commissioners operates the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Scheme which provides a range of tax reliefs linked to the purchase and use of vehicles by disabled drivers and disabled passengers in Ireland. Under the terms of the scheme, qualifying individuals can claim remission or repayment of vehicle registration tax, repayment of value-added tax on the purchase of a vehicle and repayment of VAT on the cost of adapting a vehicle for a disabled driver or a disabled passenger. Furthermore, qualifying individuals may also claim repayment of excise duty on fuel used in a vehicle for the transport of a disabled person, up to a maximum of 600 gallons per year. In addition, if you qualify under the scheme, your vehicle may be exempt from the payment of annual road tax on application to a Motor Tax Office.Details of this scheme and qualifying criteria are available on http://www.citizensinformation.ie and http://www.revenue.ie/
