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19 December 2011

ANNUAL SUPER DRAW 2011 Winners

1st Prize        Royal Caribbean International Luxury Mediterranean Cruise

Bridie Corr, Smithboro, Co Cavan

2nd Prize       Complete Ballintubber Suite of Mayo Crystal

M. Daly,  Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo.

3rd Prize        Apple iPad2 WiFi + 3G

Dylan Collins, Barnaderg, Co Galway

4h Prize:      40” LCD TV HD/Saorview  ready

Peadar Deveney, Letterkenny, Co Donegal

 

16 May 2011

BBC presenter guest at Access, Care & Mobility

UK television presenter Cerrie Burnell, the first-ever person with a disability to become a regular CBeebies presenter, visited Dublin on Friday 13 May to highlight her involvement as special guest speaker at the upcoming Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland Annual Conference and Access, Care & Mobility Expo on Friday 10th and Saturday 11th June at CityWest, Dublin.   Cbeebies is the  television channel produced by the BBC aimed at children aged 6 years and under.

 

Cerrie will be speaking at the Conference at 11 a.m. on Friday 10th June.  Following this, Cerrie will be visiting the Expo to meet with exhibitors and visitors alike.  Both Cerrie’s guest speech and the Expo are open to the public, who are welcome to come along.


Presenter, actress, singer and playwright Cerrie Burnell is half-Irish and has visited Ireland many times. Cerrie said “I’m delighted to be part of these two important events and it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to come back to Ireland. I’m just learning to drive at the moment, which is slightly daunting in central London! But driving an automatic actually makes it a bit easier- at least I don’t have to worry about the gears! I’m hoping to get some good tips from the conference audience and the exhibition about all the latest developments in assisted mobility and I’m looking forward to having a really lovely day.”

Shortly after her first child was born, Cerrie landed a presenting job at the BBC on Cbeebies and with her warm and friendly demeanour, she proved to be a natural. However within a month of starting, she attracted controversy from a small number of parents regarding her disability but received overwhelming support from many others as well as from various disability groups.  Subsequently Cerrie appeared on ‘The One Show,’ raising awareness on disability and the prejudice that can surround it.

 

During her recent trip to Ireland she appeared on TV3′s Ireland AM show and the Today Show with Pat Kenny on RTE Radio 1.

 

20 April 2011

Annual Members Spring Draw Results

The Winner of the 1st Prize of 3 Nights, Dinner, B & B at Knock House Hotel, Knock, Co. Mayo was W Sisk, Carrigaline, Co. Cork. The 2nd Prize of an Amazon Kindle Wireless Reading Device with free 3G & Wifi went to Mary Prendergast, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. 3rd Prize was a HowMedics Back & Shoulder Massage Cushion with heat which was won by Brigid McDaid,  Inver, Co. Donegal

 

11th April 2011

Minister Varadkar overhauls Disabled Parking Permits

‘Shake-up means more disabled spaces will be available to those who need them most’
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar has revamped the Disabled Parking Permit Scheme to make sure that more disabled parking bays are available to those who need them most. The revamp follows a comprehensive review of the existing scheme which was carried out in association with the Irish Wheelchair Association and the Disabled Drivers’ Association.
Minister Varadkar said: ‘This is the most significant and positive shake-up of the Disabled Parking Scheme since it began 12 years ago. The new changes will introduce tangible, practical improvements in the way the scheme operates. It will reduce the fraudulent use of permits, give new powers to local authorities and, most importantly, make sure that more specific disabled parking bays are available to those who need them most’.
Key changes include:
·         Changing the medical eligibility criteria for the Disabled Person’s Parking permit;
·         New measures to reduce the fraudulent use of permits;
·         An increase in the size of some types of parking bays;
·         The introduction of new types of disabled parking bays;
·         Giving powers to local authorities to introduce time restricted parking spaces;
·         New set-down and pick-up only disabled spaces.
The Minister has signed the necessary Regulations to bring in the changes on 1st June 2011. He said today: ‘I want to thank all of those who have contributed to this major overhaul of a scheme that was no longer fit for purpose. The recommendations of all those who contributed to the review have helped to form this new law. I look forward to the new scheme making a real difference to parking for people with disabilities in towns and cities throughout Ireland’.

 

28 March 2011

End of NCT inspection requirement on newly purchased disabled drivers cars

The requirement that Disabled Drivers have their presented to a designated NCT centre, where their adaptation and other details would be checked has been suspended as of today. Since the new system was introduced in September, matters have been chaotic with long processing delays with Revenue and NCT. This has resulted in delays of up to eight weeks in completing a sale. In some cases , having disposed of one car and transferred adaptations to the new car, disabled drivers have been without there car for several weeks. It will now be possible for garages who are on the Revenue-On-Line (ROS) to register  new vehicles there directly and eliminate the NCT appointment. Only in the case of a second hand vehicle imported from abroad will the NCT inspection still be required prior to registration.

 

21 December 2010

Annual Super Draw Results

Michaela O’Callaghan, Shanballymore, Co Cork was the lucky winner of the first prize of luxury Mediterranean cruise for two with Royal Caribbean. The cruise includes a superb balcony cabin, with meals in the ships many restaurants and many on board entertainments included. The cruise visits Malaga, Rome, Livorno and Corsica during the seven night trip. Someone may be getting a very nice present from Michaela this Christmas. The large Ballintubber suite of Mayo Crystal will be occupying the sideboard of Anthony Buckley of Gardiners Hill, Cork. Sharon Gallon from Donnybrook, Dublin 4 has a day trip with a friend to Manchester United vs Everton in April and Julian McAllen of Kildorrery will be watching a new 40″ Samsung LCD TV this Christmas. Our thanks to all those who supported the draw, especially those who braved the inclement conditions to return their tickets.  Your generosity is needed and greatly appreciated.

 

14 December 2010

Annual Super Draw Postponed for 1 day

We appreciate the loyal support our members give to the Annual Super Draw each year. The recent bad weather has limited peoples ability to get to the post office and although we have first hand knowledge of how the postal system was little affected, we have decided to postpone our draw for one day so that no-one misses their opportunity. A number of members have taken the opportunity to pay online by using the donate button to the left and email their receipt so we can enter them in the draw and this is still possible until 12 noon on Thursday. The draw will now take place on Thursday 16th December with the results in the Irish Examiner on the following day, Friday 17th.


6 December 2010

Dublin Members Meeting Cancelled

Because of the difficult and dangerous road conditions that are set to persist until tomorrow, the DDAI regional meeting for members set for Tuesday 7th December at the CityWest Hotel off the N7 has been cancelled. The meeting will be re-fixed for a later date, probably in January. We apologise for the any inconvenience caused to those who may have been looking forward to attending.


28 July 2010

Limerick Tunnel Brings Toll Count toTwelve

Disabled persons are entitled to a waiver from the tolls which have come with the newly opened motorways, bridges and tunnels. The National Roads Authority bye-laws define the exemption as applying to “Specially adapted vehicles driven by disabled people”. While the automated toll on the M50, reads registration numbers and applies the waiver to all tax exempt vehicles for convenience and some older toll operators may apply a broader definition, the group defined above is the only one to which toll operators must give free passage. For tolls other than the M50, a special toll pass must be obtained from one of the toll operators in order to avail of the exemption. Details of where to apply are to be found on our Useful Information for Drivers page under Driving and Disability.


19 July 2010

Abuse of the Disabled Person’s Tax Relief Scheme Highlighted

The Irish Independent has been talking about abuse of the Disabled Drivers & Passengers Tax Relief Scheme. The item was also taken up on Galway Bay FM’s local radio, Keith Finnegan Show. The article refers to big figures (€500m) by accumulating 10 years figures for the “cost” of the whole scheme. However, as is usual with figures for Government sources, it fails to point out that not a single cent of Government expenditure is involved as all the monies involved are taxes foregone. If without the scheme the vehicles would not have been purchased, then the taxes would never have been collected anyway. Those availing of the scheme invest (with difficultly in most cases ) most of the money into these often expensively adapted vehicles contributing to the economy and indirectly to the Exchequer. The goal of the scheme is to incentivise disabled persons to be independently mobile, to encourage disabled persons or their carers to provide the transport and thus reduce the State’s demand for direct transport provision and institutional care costs. The 2002 Interdepartmental Review recognised how effective the disabled driver element was in achieving this goal, although it seemed to have difficultly with idea that some benefit might also be derived by a family under the passenger scheme. There is general acceptance that there is some abuse on the passenger side, that some adaptations are less than appropriate to the disabled person or that the mobility benefit obtained for the disabled person is not delivered by the carer but this has never been quantified. However, it would be better to address the instances of abuse rather than simply discredit a scheme which has provided much needed transportation to disabled persons since 1968. Remember much of the minibus transport provided by charities up and down the country are part of the passenger element of the scheme. I would like to thank the Keith Finnegan Show affording the DDAI the opportunity to give a more balanced view of the scheme.


9 July 2010

Review of the Disabled Person’s Parking Scheme Published

The Minister for Transport, Mr. Noel Dempsey T.D., has published the findings of his Department’s review of the Disabled Parking Scheme.  The Disabled Parking Scheme gives local authorities the power to designate special on-street parking bays for people with disabilities and to grant special parking permits to qualifying people with severely restricted mobility. The Scheme has been in operation since 1997 and the purpose of the review was to examine the existing operation of the Scheme, to make recommendations and suggest new measures to improve the Scheme.  The overall outcome of the review, with which the Disabled Drivers Association has been engaged since 2008, is to ensure that more specific disabled parking bays are available to those most in need of them.

Key recommendations from the review include:

  • Changing the medical eligibility criteria for the Disabled Person’s Parking permit
  • New measures to reduce the fraudulent use of permits
  • An increase in the size of some types of parking bays
  • The introduction of new types of disabled parking bays
  • Giving powers to local authorities to introduce time restricted parking spaces
  • New set down and pick-up only disabled spaces.


27 June 2010

Petrol duty claims now on an annual basis

As of the 1st April 2010, claims for the refund of the duty on petrol and diesel under the Disabled Drivers & Passengers Tax Relief Scheme are to be made on an annual basis. Claimants should submit their claim on the anniversary of the date they first joined the scheme. This would be the date at which they submitted their third claim each year previously.