Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I would like to be a fly on the wall at some of those meetings when it comes to pass.

The demand for just one person with a disability on the board of State transport companies is a very modest demand It is basic common sense, apart from anything else. Obviously it is not an end itself but may assist towards sorting out the issues and problems that exist. The disability campaigners and the trades unions representing the staff are natural allies in sorting these issues out. One could look at the issue in terms of two things, culture and funding.

If we start with the funding, in my view and I have said it before, the single biggest blow that has been struck against the interests of people with disabilities in the realm of transport in the past ten years has been austerity cutbacks. One can see that graphically, in respect of train stations and Dart stations, where one has stations which were previously staffed but no longer are staffed. What does that mean for a person who arrives in a wheelchair and wants to get on to public transportation by means of a ramp etc.? This idea of ringing up hours in advance or having to go to every third station is nonsense. What is good for the staff in employment terms is good for the people with disabilities in terms of assistance with access, as is their right to public transport. That is just a small example of how the interests of one group coincides with the interests of the other.

Many of the cultural issues also come down to finance at the end of the day.

People need to be educated and trained. The staff are, by and large, very good and, in some cases, are tremendous on that front. There is always room for improvement. No trade union representative would say other than that. That improvement can be achieved, in large measure, by investment in training and that is how one tackles the problems.

The only other question I will ask is a little from left field, but I suppose that is my territory anyway.