Carol Nolan urges reform of Primary Medical Certificate access
Carol Nolan spoke in support of a motion calling on the government to develop and introduce a cost of disability payment. She highlighted failures in access to the primary medical certificate and urged a Norgent review after repeated refusals and little substantive change since a promise from the former Taoiseach nearly two years ago.
The primary medical certificate scheme provides relief from vehicle registration tax and VAT and is available only to severely and permanently disabled persons who are drivers or passengers. To qualify an applicant must hold a primary medical certificate issued by the local HSE board or obtained following an appeal with the Disabled Drivers Board.
Nolan cited the case of Mr Dygan, who lost part of his left arm after an amputation following a 2019 motorcycle accident, suffered several broken bones in his shoulder and a brain injury, yet had his application for a primary medical certificate repeatedly refused. She said it is her understanding that about 1,000 people are affected by this issue.
She welcomed proposals for a cost of disability payment but said existing schemes that are supposed to help disabled people return to active employment must be fixed. Nolan called for a Norgent review to investigate the problems around access to the primary medical certificate and the appeals process.
Nolan emphasised that the cost of living with a disability is significantly higher than for non-disabled people and that emotional and psychological costs are real even if harder to quantify. Her speech framed both direct financial supports and administrative reform as necessary steps to address the needs of disabled citizens.
Primary medical certificate access
The primary medical certificate scheme provides relief from vehicle registration tax and VAT and is available only to severely and permanently disabled persons who are drivers or passengers. To qualify an applicant must hold a primary medical certificate issued by the local HSE board or obtained following an appeal with the Disabled Drivers Board.
Case example and scale
Nolan cited the case of Mr Dygan, who lost part of his left arm after an amputation following a 2019 motorcycle accident, suffered several broken bones in his shoulder and a brain injury, yet had his application for a primary medical certificate repeatedly refused. She said it is her understanding that about 1,000 people are affected by this issue.
Policy priorities and review call
She welcomed proposals for a cost of disability payment but said existing schemes that are supposed to help disabled people return to active employment must be fixed. Nolan called for a Norgent review to investigate the problems around access to the primary medical certificate and the appeals process.
Financial and psychological costs
Nolan emphasised that the cost of living with a disability is significantly higher than for non-disabled people and that emotional and psychological costs are real even if harder to quantify. Her speech framed both direct financial supports and administrative reform as necessary steps to address the needs of disabled citizens.
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Transcript
Minister, I am delighted to speak on this motion tonight which I will be fully supporting. I particularly support the call on government to develop and introduce a cost of disability payment. We all know that the cost of living with a disability is significantly higher than for the non-disabled person. But there is also the emotional and the psychological costs that have to be borne. They are much more difficult to quantify and to put a number on, but they are no less real for that. I want to focus on one particular issue, however, and that is the ongoing issues around access to the primary medical certificate. Almost two years ago the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadgar, committed to me here in this stall chamber that he would investigate issues relating to the difficulties faced by disabled persons in securing a primary medical certificate and yet nothing of substance has changed since that time which is concerning. The primary medical certificate scheme provides relief from vehicle registration tax and VAT and is only open to severely and permanently disabled persons such as a driver or passenger. To qualify for the relief the applicant must hold a primary medical cert issued by the local HSE board or following an appeal with the disabled drivers board. I have repeatedly highlighted this issue and I have cited the case of Mr Dygan who contacted me. Mr Dygan was a man who lost part of his left arm when it had to be amputated after a traumatic motorcycle accident he was involved in in 2019. This man also suffered several broken bones in his shoulder and a brain injury. But despite his difficulties and injuries his application for a primary medical cert was repeatedly refused, which made absolutely no sense. It is my understanding that there are about 1,000 people affected by this issue. So while new payments dealing with the cost of disability are right and proper, we also need to focus on fixing the schemes that are already in place and that are supposed to help the disabled return to active employment like the primary medical cert. And I would call for a Norgent review in relation to that matter. Go raibh maith gud.