Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Okay. That is fine.

Deputy Barry was next. On the staffing of stations, the Deputy stated all stations have to be staffed. I understand the point. I am not sure that the Deputy is correct. That is why we have this pilot on the DART. The pilot will hopefully come up with the answer to the Deputy's question on whether hubs are effective. At present, there are only two stations, maybe three, which are completely unmanned. There are 13 which are manned permanently and 15 which are partially manned. The purpose of that pilot is to answer its question. That is why we want to be really transparent about it. If the answer comes up that this is not working, we will have to face it. Let us give the pilot a chance. It should throw up the difficulties, if there are some. If there are three unmanned and 15 partially manned, it should reveal whether that is adequate. That is why we are doing it. I would ask Deputy Barry for a little patience on this. We will be straight about it. We will see if it is working or if it is not. The objective is that eventually those with a disability should be able to travel in exactly equal circumstances and with equal ease as anybody else. That is it. If we can do it by having stations which are unstaffed that is fine but if we cannot, we will have to find a better solution.

On the InterCity trains, there will be customer service officers. Those are coming in now. They will not need a pilot as such. There will be customer service officers on those permanently this year; they will be on every train and they will be able to help passengers on and off the trains. I hope it will not be necessary to have a pilot there and that they will be adequately catered for.

On the issue Deputy Barry raised about private companies stepping in, if they are operating PSO services they must operate accessible buses. That is simple. The role of private companies in the transport sector is not a noble one in terms of accessibility. It is not satisfactory and it is one we have to address. There is no point in beating about the bush and saying that they are stepping up to the plate; they are not. It is not acceptable that private companies should not conform. I am aware there are market reasons and people are worried that they might not be interested in the routes but we will have to devise a means whereby they do so and that they have buses which are-----