Mr. Donie O'Shea:

I thank the Minister of State. There are a number of issues, as the Deputy quite rightly pointed out. One is the fragmentation that has occurred within the area of transport for people with disabilities. At various stages, schemes were introduced in the country, from the motorised transport grant to the mobility allowance. These date back to 1968 and 1979, respectively. Things have changed in the country since then. Even the definitions and the criteria that are applied to those schemes are very narrow and perhaps need to be broadened in instances where people have a transport need that cannot be fulfilled by public transport alone. In looking at that, we need to look at it in the round. One of the things that came up in the transport working group was the need to look at the whole architecture of transport provision for people with disabilities. If we look at each of these pieces in isolation, it will not be sustainable going forward. There are difficulties with the mobility allowance in that it is for a certain cohort and others are excluded from that. We need to look at it in terms of how we target the resources towards the individual's needs and to get at that, a certain amount of mapping needs to take place. The NTA, for instance, has done certain mapping in certain areas in rural communities to see what transport is available in certain counties. Some of these have historically been funded through charity, through the HSE and through a whole variety of ways. Going forward, we need to look at it in the round, see what is available and how that can be better used, where are the gaps, and what are the individual needs of people with disabilities living in those areas. There is a piece of substantial evidence gathering work that needs to be done. Similarly, there needs to be a much more comprehensive look at transport, from public transport to the development of community-based transport, and providing individual transport solutions for some people who cannot avail of either of these. That needs to be looked at quite critically. We need to look at the spend that is going on transport and see how best we can provide that differently. That is the big issue we are facing all along because we cannot keep going and fixing this piece over here and not the broader issue. It is not only about developing a new policy, it is developing an implementation plan which is co-ordinated, integrated and accountable. It is ridiculous to have an accessible toilet in a train station that is locked and that the people who require it cannot access it. I am not going back years but I will give an example. Many moons ago, when there were very few public assessable toilets, I remember the National Rehabilitation Board were custodians of keys for individuals, disabled people who required a key. They got a key and there was a universal lock on the toilets so that the people who needed them could use them. These toilets were few and far between around the country in those days.

The key was available so that the person who needed it could use it. One issue is the investment in accessibility. The other issue is how to maintain that accessibility. For the person with a disability, any break in the personal journey renders that journey inaccessible for them. One can have transport accessibility but if the footpath is dug up, and a person cannot get past that, even though they are capable of using public transport, it renders it inaccessible.

This involves many player from local authorities, to transport providers, to rural community links; all of those things. There is a need for some sort of co-ordinated mechanism which the Deputy has pointed to. That is a critical piece which needs to be addressed because otherwise one will go around and people will say that they are only responsible for this element of it and are not responsible for that element. At the end of the day, the person with the disability needs to get from A to B.