John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Moran, along with his mother. It is good to listen to Mr. Moran. He, like Ms Murray, is giving a voice at a high level to many other people who are unable to articulate their experience. Deputy Munster touched on some of the figures. From speaking to Mr. Moran and other people with disabilities, I know there are many people who feel they have nowhere to go when they are denied the basic right to equal access to the public transport system.

Mr. Moran is out there living his life and has represented Ireland in boccia as a Paralympian in Beijing and London. It is fantastic and the biggest impediment to Mr. Moran is the system itself. That says something about this State and how it treats its citizens in terms of equality. I have spoken to Mr. Moran many times about this. Today he touched graphically on the fact that he feels he is now being targeted. It is not by individuals within Irish Rail. It is the system itself because he is articulating the difficulties he is having accessing our public transport system. He is fearful of using the public transport system.

Last week, he came in here the morning after the incident on the DART when checks were put in place to make sure he had a ticket. He had to pay to get a taxi to and from a meeting with the Minister because he was fearful to use the DART. He fears an effort is being made to silence him and the voice that he gives to people. That needs to be addressed. That is wrong. The Minister has taken all that information. Unfortunately, I will not be here to listen to the Minister's contribution. However, I hope he will be able to provide some answers because that is wrong.

I want to touch on a few areas Mr. Moran mentioned. In my previous contribution, when Ms Murray was speaking, I referred to box-ticking. What Mr. Moran said about the emergency buttons being unarmed typifies that. A button is put in, it looks good but does not work. That is totally crazy.

That needs to be addressed immediately. Mr. Padraic Moran explained his experiences graphically. When he tried to press the button to alight from the train it did not work and he ended up in Greystones. We would not go near the consequences that could have come from that.

Mr. Moran mentioned that prior to the new chief executive taking office, it was publicised when the lifts were out of service. It might be useful if Mr. Moran would explain how this was done. He said that it is not being done now because the chief executive or some other faceless senior people in Irish Rail believe it would portray a negative image of the company. How was notice given to the public when a lift in the train station was out of operation?

It is worth teasing out this issue a little bit more. The Minister has plans for the roll-out of new carriages in 2020, 2021 or thereabouts and he will be looking at the automated ramps at that stage. Even with ramps, some of the DART stations are not accessible. Mr. Moran touched on how the implementation of unmanned DART stations is having a great impact. What are his views on a combination of the two? Leaving aside the massive infrastructural works that would be needed in the mid-term, does Mr. Moran think the rail and DART stations would work if the automatic ramps were in place, as well as the manning all stations? It is critical that all stations are manned for a multitude of reasons, including disability access, public safety and other considerations.

With the way the manual ramps are used now, a staff member is the only person who can use the ramp. Would it be possible to introduce a system where a member of the public - possibly a personal assistant - could be trained to work a ramp in the short term, if insurance was provided? Obviously, the current arrangements are simply not working. An app on the designation of certain stations as hubs was supposed to be piloted and it is telling that Mr. Moran was a member of the group that was to be part of the pilot study. The app was launched last week, however, without the pilot study and as a consequence, two people with disabilities were left on the platform.