Sinn Féin TD for Wicklow John Brady has expressed his frustration at the National Transport Authority (NTA) after the collapse of its application system for the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Grant Scheme (WAV25), which has left many taxi drivers unfairly excluded from vital funding.
Speaking on the issue, Deputy Brady said:
“The WAV25 grant is an important scheme which supports the acquisition or conversion of wheelchair accessible vehicles, ensuring that people with mobility challenges have access to safe and reliable transport. However, what should have been a straightforward application process has turned into a complete mess because of failures in the NTA’s own system.”
The WAV25 scheme set aside half of the grants for applicants on a first come, first served basis, with the remainder allocated by lottery. However, many taxi drivers who applied straight away in good faith have since discovered that their applications were not processed at all due to a failure with the NTA’s system. Crucially, applicants were not informed of this at the time, and only found out later when they chased up their applications.
Deputy Brady continued:
“This is totally unacceptable. Constituents have contacted me who applied as soon as the scheme opened, did everything they were supposed to do, and yet their applications were essentially ignored because of a system fault. The fault lies solely with the NTA and their administration of the process. It is disgraceful that these drivers are being unfairly penalised for issues outside of their control.”
Highlighting issues with the NTA’s application system, Deputy Brady said:
“What makes this situation worse is that following the WAV25 Grant Scheme Round 1 opening in January, the NTA enhanced the robustness of the WAV25 application portal for Round 2 to accommodate high applicant traffic. It appears that the system failed, and that failure went undetected by the NTA. Unfortunately, applicants through no fault of their own are the ones to pay the cost of this system failure.”
John has now written to the NTA to demand a full explanation of the issue and is urging them to review all affected applications to ensure none have been wrongly discarded.
“This is about fairness and accountability. Public funds must be carefully managed, and this is a gross oversight on the part of the NTA. The WAV25 scheme is vital in delivering accessible transport, and drivers who followed the rules cannot simply be left behind because of administrative incompetence. I will be following this issue very closely to ensure that applicants are treated fairly and that no one loses out because of the NTA’s failings.”