Mr. Ray Hernan:

I thank the Chairman for the invitation to speak today. Bus Éireann, in partnership with our stakeholders, including the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the National Transport Authority, NTA, is committed to providing fully accessible services under the Disability Act 2005. Bus Éireann has 100% accessible city services in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford, and fully accessible town services in Sligo, Athlone, Navan, Dundalk, Balbriggan, and Drogheda. Our intercity commuter and rural services are not fully accessible but their enhancement is a key priority for us in 2018. Currently, Bus Éireann operates five regional coach routes that are wheelchair accessible, which include Navan to Dublin City University, DCU, with three accessible stops, Waterford to Cork with four accessible stops, Galway to Athlone with end-to-end accessibility, Galway to Ballina with end-to-end accessibility, and Letterkenny and Lifford to Dublin with end-to-end accessibility.

It is Bus Éireann policy to procure accessible vehicles as part of the continuing programme of fleet replacement and upgrading. The company follows best practice when assessing and improving the accessibility of our services. Since 2008, it has been a legal requirement to ensure all new fleet acquired is accessible. The NTA is responsible for funding the public service obligations, PSO, fleet and we work closely with it in that regard. In recent years, all our major bus stations have been made fully accessible. In addition, audio onboard announcements for main stops are made on the majority of our services, which assists the visually impaired. In 2018, it is our intention to roll out this key initiative for all 6,000 bus stops across the network.

In addition to the above, we are in the process of converting our online timetables into html format to allow for ease of use for those with visual impairments. This process is at an advanced stage and will be completed by mid-February 2018. Our website, buseireann.iemeets the web content accessibility guidelines, WCAG, standard and is 95% compliant in this regard. Converting files to html will help to convert the remaining gap and facilitate those users who wish to access web timetables using a screen reader.

While there has been a significant amount of investment surrounding accessibility, we accept that there are still shortcomings. We will continue to work with all stakeholders to improve further the service offering. A multi-stakeholder approach is key to achieving this. Over the past number of years, we have invested in our bus stations in order to ensure that they follow best practice and are fully accessible. While this investment is ongoing, common features in our bus stations now include, but are not limited to, automatic doors, accessible toilets, ticket offices with audio hearing loop, accessible ticket vending machines, and wheelchair accessible bus bays in the majority of bus stations.

Bus Éireann employs a full-time accessibility and information officer to ensure high quality accessible and safe services are, where possible, available to our customers. This officer also co-ordinates our accessibility user group, which includes the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, DeafHear and the disability focus group, which is a part of the Dublin Community Forum. In addition, the requirements of our special needs passengers are covered as part of the driver certificate in professional competence, CPC, training courses that are conducted each year. All Bus Éireann training inspector located in all main depots nationwide are qualified to provide training in all aspects of accessibility. In addition, last year a cohort of drivers was also trained in recognising and dealing with customers who may have dementia. This was facilitated by the representative group dementia understand together.

In terms of our fleet, all new vehicles purchased in the last number of years for PSO services are accessible through low floor access. This includes kneeling access, which involved the vehicle being lowered to bring the entrance stop area in line with or close to the curb, or a wheelchair lift. In addition, all our vehicles also feature handrails that assist with ascending or descending the entrance steps and contrasting strips that define each step. We continue to work with the NTA regarding bus stop infrastructure and to identify vehicle types best suited to the varying needs of all our customers, while also suitable for roads and associated infrastructure. This recently resulted in route 32 becoming accessible between Letterkenny, Lifford and Dublin.

Currently, 86% of Bus Éireann's road passenger fleet of 680 vehicles is wheelchair accessible. With the investment plan for 2018 this figure will increase to 92% by the end of this year. Bus Éireann operates a mixture of vehicle types, from low floor city buses to high sided coaches. All low floor buses operating on city services, along with a small number of commuter routes, are 100% accessible and advance booking is not required for these services. The majority of intercity commuter and rural services are operated with high sided coached featuring a wheelchair lift. This necessitates a minimum of 3.5 m of space in order to accommodate the wheelchair user and operate the lift in a safe manner. Local authorities are responsible for pathways and kerbing. We work with their staff on the requirements for wheelchair accessible stops. It is my understanding that the NTA is providing funding toward the construction of more of these stops.

There is one wheelchair space on all our vehicles. A reservation system is in place for passengers who wish to book a space on a Bus Éireann coach. In order to accommodate a wheelchair, all coach types used on an accessible service require the removal of up to four seats, prior to the journey, along with an operational check on the wheelchair lift and the accompanying restraint mechanisms to ensure the wheelchair can be securely clamped into place.

What I have outlined is a key aspect of why advanced booking is required. The booking system necessitates any intending customer to book 24 hours in advance of his or her journey on weekdays by contacting the Bus Éireann information line. Due to operational constraints, bookings for weekends and Monday travel require 48 hours notice and must be made no later that 3 p.m. on the Friday beforehand. In this way, customers can be guaranteed the wheelchair space and Bus Éireann can make the necessary internal arrangements for it. This type of reservation system is in line with the prevailing practices across other EU countries. Bus Éireann is one of the only coach operators in the State offering wheelchair accessibility on its services. While there are considerations, both in terms of logistics and financial constraints, Bus Éireann remains fully committed to an ongoing roll-out with several more routes to be added in 2018. In this current year these additional services will be available from accessible bus stations only, while some key bus stops en routeare being redesigned to accommodate wheelchair accessible coaches.

Routes to be rolled out include the Waterford to Dublin airport, Galway to Dublin city, Limerick to Dublin airport and Belfast to Dublin city. As I noted earlier, wheelchair accessibility was recently introduced on route 32 and our first wheelchair passenger used this service last week. In conclusion, Bus Éireann remains fully committed to the roll out of wheelchair accessibility and enhanced facilities for passengers with disabilities on all our services. We will continue to work with all stakeholders, including local authorities and the NTA in order to address some of these particular challenges. We have committed to improvements in 2018, which I have already outlined. These include online timetables converted to html, accessibility rolled out on additional routes, more driver training to coincide with new accessible routes, with all city and greater Dublin area, GDA, bus stops to be audited within quarter one of 2018 to assess their ability to be used by wheelchair accessible passengers. In addition, we are going to roll out audio announcements for all stops across the network in 2018.

I thank the committee for the opportunity to address it. We are conscious of our special role as a State transport provider and the operator of the largest nationwide public transport network, to comply with the higher standards expected of us as a public body. While much work remains to be done I am very much committed to ensuring we meet those standards as best we can as we continue to recover from the financial and operational challenges of the past year.