THE OMBUDSMAN HAS said that it is “nothing short of shameful” that there is still no suitable government support to help disabled people access personal transport.
Ger Deering said this was despite a commitment from government over a decade ago to develop a scheme streamlining supports for disabled to access transport sand reports from two government departments highlighting the need for such supports.
Speaking at the publication of his annual report for 2022, Deering said that 2022 saw the highest number of complaints ever received by his office.
There were 4,791 complaints about public service bodies, an increase of over 19% on the 2021 figure – this was “primarily” due to 835 complaints about the Passport Service.
But he saved his main frustration for difficulties facing disabled people trying to access supports for transport, declaring: “We do not need more committees or reports, we need clear leadership and action. I will continue to highlight this shameful neglect until real progress is achieved.”
Deering added that the manner in which disabled people continue to be denied access to supports is “nothing short of shameful”, with all agreeing that “something needs to be done but no one seems to be willing to take action”.
The Ombudsman referred to issues with three schemes – the Motorised Transport Grant, the Mobility Allowance, and the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers scheme.
Investigative platform Noteworthy has previously reported on how the removal of the Mobility Allowance and the Motorised Transport Grant “further impoverished” the poorest disabled people.
Deering said that when his predecessors highlighted inequities in these schemes, the response of Government was either to discontinue the schemes, or in the case of the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers scheme, to reinforce the inequitable and inadequate eligibility criteria in primary legislation.
Under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, there is an onus on the Irish government to provide access to transportation on an equal basis with others to enable disabled people to live independently and participate fully in society, Deering said in his latest report.
The current situation for disabled people remains “unfair and unacceptable”, he added.
In addition, the Disabled Passengers scheme has not had an appeals mechanism in place since November 2021.
In 2013, the then government announced that it would introduce an alternative to the Motorised Transport Grant and Mobility Allowance schemes. However, over ten years later nothing has happened. Both the Department of Finance (October 2022), and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (February 2023), have published reports on the issue but there has been no progress.
The annual report included the findings of several investigations by the Ombudsman, ranging from an NCT mileage error and a nursing home wrongly charging someone thousands under the Fair Deal scheme.
One case focused on a disabled woman who was in receipt of a Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), who complained to the Ombudsman after Wexford County Council refused to increase the Council’s contribution towards her rent under the scheme.
The woman, called Claire, was struggling to pay her rent due to increased costs resulting from her disability and was relying on a local foodbank and a charity to make ends meet.
The Council reviewed its decision and Claire was granted an increase in financial assistance under HAP.
Given the length of time which had passed since Claire first sought help, the Council also backdated the assistance to when the Ombudsman first requested that discretion be applied.
The annual report also summarises some of the complaints upheld in 2022 including as case studies.
One saw a woman complain that her car value dropped after her NCT examination accidently added 40,000 km to the car’s mileage reading.
“When she complained to the National Car Testing Service it said it could not change the reading as any errors needed to be brought to its attention at the time of the NCT,” the report said.
After the Ombudsman noted that there were a number of COVID-related restrictions in place at the time of the woman’s NCT, including encouraging car owners to leave the NCT centre as soon as possible after the test, the office intervened as it may have meant that the woman never saw the notices indicating the NCT’s policy on errors.
“After the Ombudsman intervened, the NCT apologised for the error and issued a revised NCT certificate with the correct reading.”
Elsewhere, the Department of Social Protection had to back down after initially starting to recoup a €32,000 social welfare overpayment from a man because it could not find his file.
It had claimed to have overpaid the man in his Invalidity Pension.
When the Ombudsman asked the department for evidence of the overpayment the Department, it transpired it could not locate John’s file.
The Ombudsman maintains a policy that if the department cannot locate a file, then there is “unlikely to be anything to support a decision to recover the overpayment, and there is nothing to support a decision to withhold arrears”.
Following discussion with the Ombudsman, the Department agreed to refund the amount John had already repaid. It also confirmed that it would write-off the overpayment.
Complaints to the Passport Service mainly related to delays in processing applications.
The Ombudsman also upheld one woman’s complaint as the service required complaints to be made in writing, with a contact email also out of date, thereby impeding the processing of issues with the service.
However, it is expected that there will be a “significant fall-off in such complaints in 2023″ as the Passport Office engaged “constructively” with the Ombudsman throughout 2022 to help resolve the issues and improve its customer service.
Deering said that complaints about government departments and Offices accounted for the largest number of complaints with 1,842 – an increase of 73% on 2021.
There were 1,269 complaints about local authorities (down 2% on 2021) with most relating to housing issues. This included 200 complaints about Dublin City Council, 86 about Limerick City and County Council, and 78 about Cork City Council.
The Ombudsman’s annual report for 2022 is available at www.ombudsman.ie
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