Mr. Kevin Doyle:

That is certainly an issue. We have held discussions with the NTA on it and the authority engaged with the National Disability Authority, as a result of which it was able to make changes to delivery, particularly in the context of visually impaired people. The NTA is also looking to appoint a dedicated accessibility officer, which it does not have at the moment. This will be useful to do. It is looking to provide for better engagement with disability sector. We have a disability and accessibility committee and each of the transport operating companies has one. Perhaps the NTA needs one too.

The Senator also asked about bus stops. These are an issue and they are part of our retrofit programme. We have a significant capital programme over the next number of years to deal with the antiquated infrastructure which we have in some cases, and it is being rolled out on a route by route basis. We have done Dublin to Donegal and Dublin to Letterkenny. The NTA plan is to have accessible bus stops in 43 towns with populations of over 5,000 people by 2021. It will mean one such stop in each direction so there will be a total of 86 accessible bus stops.

Approximately 69% of LocalLink services are defined as fully or partially accessible. The NTA is now retendering in respect of the more than 1,000 routes on the LocalLink service.

One of the conditions it is putting on that is that all those services must be wheelchair accessible within two years. The existing services must remain accessible; the other 31% must be accessible within two years.

On commercial operators, as the Senator mentioned, this is certainly an issue on coaches. Bus Éireann Expressway services have to be wheelchair accessible. There is no requirement on commercial bus operators to provide wheelchair accessible coaches.