Transport support scheme
Deputy Adams questions the scrapping of mobility and transport grants for disabled people. The Taoiseach says the schemes were closed to new entrants only, existing recipients remain covered, and a new statutory transport support scheme will be brought forward next year.
My question is on the health (transport support) Bill. In February 2013 the Government scrapped the mobility allowance scheme and the motorised transport grants because they were not in compliance with the Equal Status Act and the Disability Act. That was done despite a recommendation by the Ombudsman that the schemes be widened. I remember it very well. The Ombudsman ruled they were discriminating because some people would not be given the grants. Instead of people being given those grants, the grants were stopped. The then Minister of State, former Deputy Kathleen Lynch, said it was because it cost too much. Other Deputies and I have raised this very often since then. A replacement scheme was promised but it has not been delivered. Those who are excluded are being caused much extra hardship. The health (transport support) Bill has been in the legislative programme for five years now. According to the current legislative programme, the Bill is now priority legislation for publication. However, a date for pre-legislative scrutiny is still to be determined. Does the Taoiseach have a date for the publication of the health (transport support) Bill?
Comment on this
To correct the Deputy, those grants were not stopped. They are still being paid. The schemes were not scrapped; they were just closed to new entrants. People who were availing of them up until then still are. We now need to put in place, on a statutory footing, a new transport support scheme. It is intended to have that legislation published next year and to have it through the Dáil and Seanad so we can fund it for the budgetary cycle beginning in October. There is still some work to do on that.
To answer Deputy Adams's question from Leaders' Questions, 1,600 homes were offered to the Housing Agency, not 1,800. Of those 1,600, 600 were purchased and 1,000 were not purchased for the following reasons: they were unsuitable for social housing, they were not in an area where there was social housing demand, they were bad value for taxpayers' money due to excessive cost, they were withdrawn from sale or there were legal complications related to the property due to title or planning issues.