Ms Alannah Murray:

I live in Virginia, which is about half an hour from Cavan town and half an hour from Navan. I come from Navan originally. When I started taking the bus and first tried booking it, I was told that I would have to get on at Cavan. I asked if I was expected to go to Cavan rather than go two minutes down the road to get the bus and I was told that was what I would have to do and that was the company policy. I did it for a while but then I decided I was having no more of it and I told the company that I would get on at Virginia. It told me that I could not do so and I responded that I could. I went out with a measuring tape and measured the kerb. I was well able to get on at the stop in Virginia, it was just that Bus Éireann did not want to stop mid-route and go through the rigmarole of clamping me in.

The clamping of the chair is another issue. Most of the time, I tell people how to clamp the chair. I think that some of the drivers have started to realise that I am asking them for a reason. I have stopped ringing to complain because it makes no difference - and the system remains broken - but when I used to call, I would explain that the drivers did not know how to use the clamps and that they had not been trained how to do it. It is a fundamental health and safety issue. If a driver does not know how to clamp a wheelchair down and a customer goes flying, it is not the customer's fault. It seems as though some of the drivers have read the same thing because they give an automatic response whereby they say they are trained and have been given refresher training. Whenever I have complained, the response seems automatic and I am told that they are sorry I have had the experience and where I can log the complaint, which they will then do nothing about. That is the system. I once alighted from a bus in Navan, it was not my usual stop, where there was a drop of 3 ft to get to the kerb. I sat at the bus stop looking at the kerb and wondering whether I would manage to land if I fired myself off it, because that was the only way that I was going to get from A to B. So there are problems with bus stops and with ramps not working. I have also had an experience whereby a bus had been adapted but when the driver checked the ramp, he discovered it was not working.

One then wonders what one is supposed to do.

As regards Dublin Bus, it was snowing and raining last week and I was waiting for a bus. The bus drivers did their best and asked people to fold up their buggies but people refused to do so. I sat with blue hands, shivering, because I could not get on the bus because people would not fold up their buggies as not all buses have a designated spot for buggies. I was left in the freezing cold and do not know how I did not get pneumonia. I sat at the bus stop and decided I would go for a coffee, cry and try again. That is the system. One sits, cries, gathers oneself and tries again.