John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and the Minister. We do not have much time. I have two questions for the Minister. I would also like to make a few points. Have the cuts to services that have already been announced been risk assessed in terms for access for people with disabilities, who are stakeholders in all of this? As members of the public, they have a right to use a public service. As we have heard, it is a public good. I asked the Minister about this in the Seanad recently. It would be useful if he were to set out what he intends to do to on a year-by-year basis to make public transport accessible for people with disabilities in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. My understanding is that the private operator which provides the route 717 service from Clonmel to Dublin Airport, which has been mentioned by the Minister and others, does not have accessible vehicles. An accessible fleet is used on the X7 Expressway service from Clonmel to Dublin Airport, which is being taken offline.

Both those operators are licensed as public service operators and should be operating on an even keel and making sure disabled people can participate in that.

I understand that the automated voice system alerting passengers with hearing and visual issues is in place and is not being used. These are some of the issues that are not going to get solved in the next week or two but they are issues about the accessibility of a public service for all members of the public, young and old.

Drivers are not being trained to use the wheelchair lifts. In professional bus driver competency training there is a module on drivers being able to assist people with disabilities. My understanding is that the module is not being provided to drivers and it is supposed to be under the EU regulations we have taken on. I have also mentioned the issue that in Dublin Bus and other city fleets there is long-standing provision for people with disabilities and people in wheelchairs having accessible spaces. They are often used by other people and at the moment there is no way of preventing other people from using those spaces when people in wheelchairs need them.