Vol. 497 No. 3
123 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Finance the rules for tax exemption on disabled drivers cars for applicants suffering from multiple sclerosis who do not have proper use of their legs; the regulations in the regard; if he will re-examine and relax these rules; the number of multiple sclerosis suffers who have been approved in the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25135/98]
The scheme the Deputy is referring to is the disabled drivers and disabled passengers scheme. The medical criteria for the purposes of the tax concession under this scheme are set out in the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers (Tax Concessions) Regulations 1994. Six different types of disablement are listed under the regulations and a qualifying person must satisfy one or more of them. The scheme targets relief at those persons who are severely and permanently disabled with regard to physical mobility. The Revenue Commissioners are unable to put a figure on the number of multiple sclerosis sufferers who have been approved under the scheme in the past two years, as it is the nature and the extent of the disability which determines a person's eligibility under the scheme rather than the circumstances which have given rise to that disability.
A comprehensive review of the workings of the provisions of the scheme was carried out in 1993-94 and resulted in the adoption of the current regulations. The six types of disablement are as follows: persons who are wholly or almost wholly without the use of both legs, persons wholly without the use of one of their legs and almost wholly without the use of the other leg such that they are severely restricted as to movement of their lower limbs; persons without both hands or without both arms, persons without one or both legs; persons wholly or almost wholly without the use of both hands or arms and wholly or almost wholly without the use of one leg, and persons having the medical condition of dwarfism and who have serious difficulties of movement of the lower limbs.
Where a person meets the medical criteria, the relevant senior area medical officer issues a primary medical certificate for presentation to the Revenue Commissioners. Where the issue of such a certificate is refused, the person concerned may appeal that decision to the Disabled Drivers' Medical Board of Appeal, an independent board, whose decision is final. An interdepartmental group has recently been established, under the chairmanship of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, with a view to determine what modifications, if any, might be proposed to the scheme.
