The Irish Wheelchair Association has called for the independent assessment of disabled driving permits applications, following claims that the system is being widely abused by people without disabilities.
The IWA has heard of builders' vans with disabled permits, of people using their grandparents' parking permits, and of people keeping permits after the permit holder dies.
Currently, people seeking a permit to park in a disabled driver's space must get approval from their GP. Under the parking permits legislation, a disabled person is "a person who is suffering from a disability that prevents that person from walking or causes undue hardship to the person in walking".
However, local GPs are being pressurised into giving approval to people without disabilities, according to Michael Doyle, regional advocacy director with the IWA.
"Doctors say: people come in to look for a parking badge. They have been coming to us for years with their families and we are not going to say 'no' to them," he said.
Mr Doyle said GPs were unhappy at being put in such an awkward position so they would not object if the system was changed to an independent assessment. Because the disabled spaces are free, a permit could save a driver as much as €80 a week if they were using on-street parking for eight hours a day. Mr Doyle said that every time on-street parking charges rose, the number of applications for permits increased by about 300 per cent.
For this reason, the IWA has also called for a review of the decision to allow free parking in these spaces. If charges were to be introduced for disabled parking spaces, then other supports must be put in place for people with disabilities who could not afford to pay the charges , Mr Doyle said.
There are more than 30,000 parking permits in circulation. MEP Maireád McGuinness, who has campaigned on this issue, said there was no evidence that people were returning permits after permit holders died or did not need them anymore. "Where do the permits go and who is monitoring the system?" she said. "It's a shambles."
Last March, the fine for parking illegally in a disabled spot was increased from €19 to €80 but Ms McGuinness said she had never heard of a case where someone had been prosecuted for illegally parking in a disabled space.
