thanks jackie for the info re driving. with the disability pension they go in levels of payment and they have me assessed as 60% so i have been receiving the pension for about 1.5 years now. yes there is a medical to go through every six months but not difficult once you bring your drs reports with you. they just have it in a part of town where there is no parking which is so irish!!. The car i got is a citroen picasso which is automatic but the stick for changing from reverse to park to drive is on the steering wheel there is also nothing between the driver side and passenger side so you can stretch out your leg on journeys and the handbreeak is a button on the dash so makes things so much easier for driving parking etc work did buy me a very nice car about a year ago and even though that is automatic also i cant drive it as its low down so have to say this was a great but for us.