Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. It has been a busy engagement over the past two weeks, given all the different opportunities. We are dealing with the Supplementary Estimates for the Minister's Department and Revenue. I will come to Revenue in a moment. I cannot imagine this will take much time.

There are far more important and wider issues than what is at stake here in respect of the Supplementary Estimate for the Disabled Drivers Medical Board of Appeal. We have raised those issues previously and my colleagues raised them on the floor of the Dáil during oral questions earlier today. It is an intolerable position where people with disabilities have been left in this situation for years as a result of a scheme that is not up and running.

The Minister again said in his statement that the board will commence as soon as possible. As we know, the issues that led to the previous board resigning en masseis the fact this scheme is not fit for purpose. There is supposed to be a new grant-based scheme. When does the Minister expect this? It will be a transition away from the Department to a separate Department. When does he expect it to be operational?

Will he take me through what role the consultant provides to the board? Will he explain what role the consultant played in 2022?