Mr. Ray Coyne:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to attend here today. It is a very important issue and I am grateful for the opportunity to address it.

As Ireland’s largest public transport provider, with over 139 million customers a year, we play a key role in the provision of accessible public transport in the communities we serve. The primary barrier for customers with disabilities to our services in the 1990s related to step-entry vehicles and the challenges they posed for customers with mobility difficulties. In the late 1990s, Dublin Bus introduced its first low-floor vehicle and in the 2000s the company adopted a progressive policy that all new vehicles purchased would only be accessible low-floor vehicles. In 2013 Dublin Bus achieved a long-held goal of having a fleet that is 100% low-floor accessible. This required the replacement of over 1,000 vehicles from step-access to low-floor accessible access. This was good news not only for wheelchair users but for customers with mobility impairments, older customers and customers with buggies. The enhancement of the accessibility of our services requires a continuous programme of improvement. Our buses are now equipped with a low-floor chassis, kneeling suspension to further reduce step-entry height, a retractable ramp at entrance and a priority space for wheelchair users as standard. In addition to this, almost 50% of our fleet now has space for both a wheelchair user and a buggy. All buses provide a range of on-board facilities to assist visually, hearing and mobility impaired customers. These include multiple accessible seats in the lower saloon, colour contrasting handrails, and on-bus audio and visual location announcements on all buses. Having a fleet that is 100% accessible has proven to be vitally important in giving people with disabilities the confidence to use Dublin Bus services on a daily basis. This achievement was made possible by the acquisition of new state-of-the-art double-decker buses as part of our fleet replacement programme. The purchase of these buses was initially funded by the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and subsequently by the National Transport Authority. I acknowledge their continued support in helping us achieve this goal for our 139 million customers. There have also been enhancements to the streetscape including accessible kerbing introduced at bus stops in the city. This stop infrastructure reduces the angle of boarding and provides near level boarding access for customers. It also includes tactile and colour contrasting paving. The roll-out of this infrastructure at bus stops continues today.

Dublin Bus has a dedicated accessibility officer whose role actively promotes the development of our accessibility policy. The accessibility officer works collaboratively with the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, Irish Wheelchair Association, Deaf Hear, St. Michael’s House, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind and the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament. The group meets on a quarterly basis and considers a wide range of accessibility matters from the creation of our accessibility policy to the introduction of new features on buses. We have developed a close relationship with these agencies over the past 20 years. In 2008, Dublin Bus launched its travel assistance programme. The scheme encourages inclusivity across public transport by providing a personalised travel service to customers aged 18 and over free of charge. Provided by Dublin Bus, the scheme assists customers in the independent use of Dublin Bus, DART and Luas, in particular those with mobility and learning disabilities. It is funded by the NTA. Through this scheme, customers can avail of personal assistance and practical advice on how to travel independently on public transport. Our travel assistant will meet a customer at his or her home before he or she makes the next step of using public transport. With the help of our travel assistant, a tailor-made travel plan is drawn up to meet each individual customer’s needs. The personal relationship is hugely important, as is developing trust between the customer and the travel assistant. Since its launch, the scheme has gone from strength to strength with over 1,200 travel assist programmes provided in 2017.

It is our policy to ensure all our buses, information points and services are accessible and user friendly for all our customers. We review our training programmes on an ongoing basis, aiming to provide employees with the latest and most progressive training resources. We seek to further enhance the accessibility of our service through many initiatives and work processes. These include consulting with people with access problems to meet their requirements and expectations where possible, work with other external agencies such as local authorities to assist with infrastructure which improves access to our services, continuously review our service to see how best it can be improved, and upgrade our communication system and provide accessible information. While it is not possible to anticipate every challenge a customer may have on his or her journey with us, we work diligently with customers and stakeholders to anticipate problems and solve them as they arise. Dublin Bus has a strong working relationship with stakeholders in the accessibility area. Engaging with stakeholders allows us to react quickly when issues arise. One such issue was the availability of the wheelchair zone on board buses.

Dublin Bus joined the Irish Wheelchair Association and Transport for Ireland to develop and launch an awareness campaign highlighting the importance of the dedicated wheelchair zone on all our PSO buses. The multi-agency campaign initiative demonstrates the negative consequences which can impact a wheelchair user if they are unable to access the wheelchair zone on a Dublin Bus service. A series of awareness videos, featuring wheelchair users captures the effects and illustrates the challenges that arise if the wheelchair zone is occupied by another customer, including those travelling with a buggy. The series of videos launched as part of the campaign illustrate the simple process which IWA, Dublin Bus and TFI are encouraging all customers travelling with buggies to support and follow. Member can find these videos online in the buggy section of the IWA website. We are currently in discussions to run this campaign again in the coming months.

Over the past number of months, we have been working closely with local organisations at events for older people. It is our responsibility to ensure that our older customers feel safe while using our services so our presence at events such as the age friendly strategy road show and the over-55s showcase of talents is essential. Events like these allow us to promote safety and accessibility on our services while also giving our customers the opportunity to share their concerns or ask questions.

We have been proactive in raising awareness among employees about the health and safety risks for older customers with a poster campaign active throughout all our depots.

We have been proactive in raising awareness among employees about the health and safety risks for older customers, with a poster campaign active throughout all our depots.

While we have made significant progress in the area of accessibility, challenges remain. I read with interest the submissions from the National Council for the Blind of Ireland, the Irish Wheelchair Association, the Disability Federation of Ireland and other stakeholders who appeared before this committee last December. We are always looking for ways to improve the service we provide to our customers and I want to assure these groups and members of this committee that any issues raised in their submissions will be dealt with fully by Dublin Bus. It is important to continue to build on the progress made on the accessibility of urban bus transport. Dublin Bus has a progressive accessibility policy, a key element of which is providing employees with disability awareness training. All our customer facing employees receive disability awareness and customer care training. We have over 2,500 drivers, inspectors and customer service employees who deal with the public on a daily basis. Dublin Bus is in the process of addressing the area of hidden disabilities in employee training. Dublin Bus works closely with disability user groups in the design of our disability awareness training programme. As part of this programme we now include a video which focuses on how to assist customers with Alzheimer's disease and other hidden disabilities. This improvement is a direct result of the close co-operation between Dublin Bus and these groups. We have engaged with Headway with regard to people with hidden disabilities. Headway is a voluntary organisation that specialises in brain injury rehabilitation and assists people who have been ill or injured to rebuild their skills to achieve the best quality of life that they can. A key element of this training is to create awareness on disabilities which are hidden and highlight that these customers may have difficulties that are not visible but they may require some extra assistance. We are also examining the possibility of redesigning our public offices to make them more accessible to customers who have hidden disabilities.

As chief executive officer of Dublin Bus, I am very proud to lead an organisation that is an industry leader in accessibility. Public transport enables all people in our society to fully participate in the work, social and leisure activities that Dublin offers. We are not complacent and I acknowledge that more work is needed to address issues experienced by people with disabilities. Dublin Bus will continue its commitment to playing a leading role in helping to create an accessible and inclusive public transport system in Ireland. That concludes my opening statement and I would be happy to any questions that may arise.