To ask the Minister for Regional Development what action he is taking to address the delay in the renewals process for the Blue Badge Scheme.

My Department has a target to inform 95% of applicants for Blue Badges of our decision within 15 working days of receipt of their valid applications. Given that in excess of 35,000 applications are received each year, this is a challenging target.

As of 29 August 2013, there were approximately 3500 Blue Badge applications waiting to be processed. The Blue Badge Unit is currently working approximately six to seven days behind the 15-day target due to a number of short-term resourcing issues that are being addressed. Two additional posts in the unit were created earlier in the year following a review of workloads. Pending recruitment of permanent staff, casual staff have been employed and weekend overtime arranged to address the backlog. Until the unit is up to full complement, it is expected that delays may persist during September. Departmental staff are working to fill all vacancies as soon as possible.

I have instructed officials to extend the grace period for expired Blue Badges to one calendar month. This is in line with car tax expiry dates.