Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for his remarks. Without appearing to flatter him or any other members of the committee too much, the role played by the committee is very helpful in increasing public awareness and in making others, including me, accountable for what is happening. The members are responsible for the fact that there has been a giant step forward, not just in funding but in public awareness and in the need to disability-proof public transport decisions in all their aspects.

The Senator referred to the board members whom I appointed. That is proving to be successful. I see a greater awareness among the operating companies of all the difficulties people with disabilities have while travelling. It puts pressure on the board members themselves to ensure these steps are taken on every occasion. They are responding to it well and the actions we have seen show they are responding well to it.

On the transport accessibility manager, the newly appointed person started on Monday. That is a really important appointment. It is not just important for what he or she does but because it recognises the importance this issue is now taking in the firmament of transport and how everything will have to pass muster with the transport accessibility manager. I can outline a fair summary of what he or she can do. The role is to establish a formal engagement process with key disability representative groups, to ensure that the needs of those with a disability are considered in all of the major improvement plans proposed by the NTA, which is a pretty wide brief and to me, it means that the job is to disability-proof all major decisions and improvement plans, to develop an improvement plan for existing services in consultation with key disability representative groups and identify priorities within that plan, to assist in the development of the authority's accessibility capital programme and ensure that accessibility is to the forefront of all new transport infrastructure and to monitor the delivery of improvements in the accessibility of public transport services and infrastructure. It is also to act as an internal spokesman within the NTA for the customer who has a disability and to monitor progress on actions under the Department's sectoral plan entitled Transport Access for All, the comprehensive employment strategy and the national disability inclusion strategy, which I said in my opening speech were the key strategies. Moreover, progress on those actions and that of the Department must be reported on by the transport accessibility manager. In addition, the role is to co-ordinate the accessibility programmes that are under way by transport operators for improving accessibility to public transport and to review and audit accessibility plans of transport operators contracted by the authority. As a result, the manager will look after the interest of the authority and follow through on various accessibility issues that have been contracted by the NTA. The manager's role also is to assist in the development of the appropriate policy and strategy to improve the accessibility features provided by licensed public bus transport operators; to facilitate the early involvement of relevant stakeholders in the next-generation ticketing programme; to advise on the development of transport operator training programmes; to draft and update accessibility policies for public transport customers; to ensure that a high standard universal access training is provided to the authority's employees; to undertake research in the area of public transport accessibility, particularly in the tools that are being developed to improve accessibility; to co-ordinate the access officers across all public transport service operators and to establish a contact system and complaints handling system for users of public transport who have a disability. In other words, the new transport accessibility manager will have a role in relaying and receiving the complaints of all those who feel they have been badly treated or omitted, whose cases have not been heard or whose difficulties have not been acknowledged. The role also is to establish a contact complaints system; to ensure that the authority's Transport for Ireland website conforms with the official accessibility guidelines and that any official published information supplied by the authority is available in accessible formats; and finally, to promote the improvements in accessible services to customers and key stakeholders. Those are the kind of duties and responsibilities that have been spelled out to the transport accessibility manager but the appointment is more than that. It is also a great link and recognition of the importance of this issue to public transport. It should be acknowledged that the NTA has seriously bought in to the need for a position of this sort and for the need to progress it fast and accelerate it.

I have been asked about bus stops. I have got the details here but I am afraid that I do not know them off by heart. The NTA has set a target of 86 wheelchair-accessible bus stops in 43 towns, each with a population of over 5,000 with one stop in each direction. That is 50% of main towns with a wheelchair bus stop with one in each direction by the end of 2021. The NTA is liaising with a number of local authorities nationwide, including Sligo, Clare, Cork, Wexford, Cavan, Limerick, Offaly and Meath to develop designs and agree accessible bus stop locations and scope of works. Surveys and designs are being developed for wheelchair-accessible stops at Ballyshannon and Sligo bus stations, which will be of interest to members. There are some logistical issues that impact on the upgrading of bus stops in regional, rural locations. In particular, most rural bus stops or towns do not have a footpath that spans 3 m. That is one of the difficulties that we have encountered nationwide but we are trying to overcome.

The final issue is the central customer centre, which is meant to provide a more efficient and integrated contact with customers and the public. The centre will provide information on a more integrated basis than is possible at present. It will utilise the various available communication channels and includes the phone, email, live chat and social media. As part of the programme to enhance availability, the NTA will produce transport information in a variety of formats. The scheme is customer driven and a proposal is currently being developed that will enable the provision of information.