Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the committee for the invitation today. I am very grateful for this timely opportunity to address the committee on the issue of accessibility of public transport for people with disabilities. As the members may know, fighting for improved accessibility of public transport has been a key priority of mine since becoming Minister. In recent years, progress on this issue has been made but it has been unacceptably slow.

I will start by listing the steps that have been taken in recent times to improve the lives of people with disabilities who use public transport. Accessibility features, such as wheelchair access and audio-visual aids, are built into all new public transport infrastructure projects and vehicles from the design stage. Newer systems, such as Luas, are fully accessible. Of the 143 rail stations on the Iarnród Éireann network, 84 are now accessible. Since 2007, some 17 rail stations have been built to accessibility standards. Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann city fleets are 100% wheelchair-accessible, as is approximately 80% of the Bus Éireann coach fleet. This will increase as the coach fleet is replaced. Under the rural transport programme, 69% of service trips are defined as either fully or partially accessible.

On board audio and visual next-stop announcements are available on all of the Dublin Bus fleet. All of the Bus Éireann fleet has the capability to annunciate automatic audible next-stop announcements, and all additions to the fleet since 2015 have been fitted with multimedia screens that show route progress and stop information. All Dublin Bus stops and Bus Éireann stops in regional cities are wheelchair accessible. The upgrading of regional and rural bus and coach stops to make them accessible is being rolled out on a route-by-route basis, beginning in Donegal. The taxi wheelchair accessible vehicle, WAV, grant scheme, in operation since 2014, helped to increase the number of WAVs in the fleet from 3% to 7.6% at end 2017. A target of 10% has been set for 2020. Other measures in place to assist people with disabilities using public transport include the travel assistance scheme, demand-responsive transport under the rural transport programme, the provision of real-time passenger information on the Internet, by app and electronic displays at bus stops, and improved functionality and availability of the Leap card.

The list may sound impressive but it is not enough. Funding in itself is not the full answer. Making the journeys of passengers with disabilities more comfortable and stress free is a completely different matter. Understanding the difficulties and challenges that face people with disabilities who need to use public transport seems beyond the imagination of the able-bodied. This is not good enough.

Since becoming a Minister, I have been particularly struck by the personal experiences related to me in my meetings with people with disabilities who use public transport. They make the case that the current improvements are inadequate. There is a convincing consistency to their stories. The improvements made may look impressive on paper but when put into practice, they fall short of providing full access for people with disabilities. Examples of this are where there are accessible buses but bus stops are not accessible, and the interface between accessible rail infrastructure and accessible trains where a ramp is required between the platform and the carriage.

I wish to respond to Ms Alannah Murray, Mr. Padraic Moran and others who made submissions today and in this past to this committee. I, too, have observed and been frustrated by the slow progress of Government strategies and action plans. The most appropriate expert voice for the views and difficulties of the disabled is not that of able-bodied politicians or semi-State company directors; it is their own. The most appropriate place for them to express these views is not only in the media or at meetings of these committees, but in the boardroom. Disabled people need a place at the table, the place where the decisions that affect them are made.

As a result of wide consultation with members of the disability community and with disability bodies striving to make an impact, I have decided that no public transport company in my Department shall in future function without a minimum of one board member who has personal knowledge and experience of the needs and difficulties of people with disabilities using public transport. Well-meaning board members offering sympathy to those with disabilities are self-evidently less able to make practical and informed decisions than those who overcome the physical obstacles daily. It is easy for financial experts to calculate the figures and allocate funds for more accessible buses and trains, but ensuring those funds make a difference where it matters is much more challenging.

The process to include those with raw personal experience of disability on public transport on the boards will begin today. First to be advertised will be the National Transport Authority, whose role and responsibility for public transport is immense. I look forward to appointing a new director to this board in the coming months.

These will be swiftly followed by CIÉ, Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann.

Meanwhile our work goes on. While it is now clear we need those with practical experience at the decision-making table, we also need an increase in funding if we are going to deliver further results. I am pleased to report that I secured a trebling of the funding provided for the accessibility retrofit programme as part of the four year capital envelope for public transport announced in budget 2018. An amount of almost €28 million is being made available for accessibility upgrades for existing older infrastructure in the period 2018 to 2021. I intend to improve upon that in our national development plan, NDP, over the next ten years and beyond. Investment in public transport will be accelerated under the NDP to support the development of an integrated and sustainable national public transport system. A number of key new major public transport programmes are being considered under the NDP over the period to 2027. As with all new and recently developed public transport projects, these programmes will be fully accessible as part of the normal design. Under the NDP, there will also be a continued investment programme to fund retrofitting of older existing public transport facilities to enhance accessibility. It goes without saying that public transport operators as the providers of the services will continue to be central to how services are delivered and accessed by people with disabilities.

The Department’s sectoral plan under the Disability Act 2005 is called “Transport Access for All”.This concept is predicated on the principle of universal access to public transport which does not distinguish between people with disabilities and other passengers. At the whole of Government level, the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017 to 2021, NDIS, launched in July 2017 by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, is aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities. Implementation of the NDIS is being overseen by the NDIS steering group on which my Department is represented. The comprehensive employment strategy, CES, for people with disabilities sets out a ten-year approach to ensuring that people with disabilities, who are able to and want to work are supported and enabled to do so. Both my Department and the National Transport Authority, NTA, are represented on the CES implementation group. Between the two strategies, there are 19 publictransport related actions for which my Department, the NTA and-or public transport operators have lead responsibility for implementing and to which we are wholly committed.

There are also a number of other Government strategies and plans which include accessible public transport actions and commitments. My Department is in the process of consolidating all of the actions and commitments into one document, which will form the basis of the work programme for my Department’s accessibility consultative committee. Its role is to monitor and review progress on the implementation of their respective actions under the NDIS. Membership of my Department’s consultative committee is drawn from organisations representing people with disabilities, members of the disability stakeholders group, key agencies under the aegis of the Department, as well as other relevant State agencies. At Department level, the consultative committee will not only monitor the NDIS actions, but will use the consolidated actions document to monitor all the accessible public transport actions in the other Government strategies and plans for which my Department, the NTA and-or public transport operators have the lead role.

While progress has been made on improving the accessibility of our public transport system, I am keenly aware that people with disabilities continue to face difficulties when they want and need to use public transport to carry out their normal daily duties and activities. Last week, Irish Rail announced a reduction in the notice period required for all DART users requiring assistance from 24 hours to four hours. While I absolutely acknowledge that this falls short of my Department’s commitment to access for all, it is a further step in the right direction.

Such difficulties were well articulated by those with lived experience of disabilities and those representing them, at the committee’s hearing on 13 December last. I have also held a number of meetings since taking office with a range of groups representing people with disabilities and also with individuals who have outlined to me, in stark terms, the obstacles they experience in every day life in accessing public transport. People such as Padraic Moran, who is in the Visitors Gallery and who appeared before the committee this morning, Sean O’Kelly, representatives of the Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, the Central Remedial Clinic, CRC, the Disability Federation of Ireland, DFI, Members of both Houses and, in particular, the Minister of State, Deputy Finian McGrath, who I see every day, and Senator John Dolan, who I have met many times on this issue, have all helped to inform my view that we must do more. That is why more has to be done to address the issues raised by them.

Not all of the challenges which people with disabilities face when using public transport are about infrastructure or facilities. Some are about changing attitudes and improving the understanding of the needs of people with disabilities. For example, last October I was pleased to launch the “Please don’t buggy in the wheelchair zone” which highlighted the importance of the dedicated wheelchair space on all Dublin buses.

The transport operators and the NTA outlined at the earlier hearings plans for further measures to improve accessibility. They will soon be joined on their boards by disability activists, as a result of a decision which I announced today. I will be watching closely these developments to see if they are delivering for people with disabilities, as I trust the members will be too. I am sure this development will improve the position for people with disabilities using public transport but they will also be representative of all users and will bring great talents to the boards and they will also bring an insight which no one else shares with them. I look forward to further engagement with the committee on this important issue in the months and years ahead.