John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Vice Chairman. I gave Mr. Delaney the imprimatur and he did great work. The Vice Chairman is very gracious in specifically mentioning him. Many of people with disabilities and the associated organisations rowed in behind it and put considerable effort in.

This does not take one iota from the accelerated progress that has been made and the further progress to be made. Public transport is a daily grind and frustration for people with disabilities, as the Minister has frequently acknowledged. We keep talking about progress, which is excellent. It does not take from the fact that people regularly have problems. I note that and I am delighted that we have reached this stage and this report has been published.

The Minister mentioned that 13 of the 16 recommendations are his. As Minister, he is taking leadership in ensuring the other three things are kept moving. That is very important and I acknowledge it does not always happen across Departments. There is also a complementary leadership role for this committee. We have our blue bible and we have a way of monitoring every six months. Working in parallel, the Minister, the Department and the committee can keep the focus on this. It is human nature that as other issues come up, the ones that were there the previous week slip back. It is important not to let this slip irrespective of other challenges and issues that arise with transport or Government policies, etc.

Many of the necessary processes have now been put in place. Before starting to build, the site needs to be cleaned and the foundations laid. People might say that nothing is happening. These are things that are happening. The pipework is going in place. It is not sexy work but it is necessary.

That is really important and it gives us the foundations but we must start ticking off things on a six-monthly basis so we keep ourselves stretched in making progress. The Minister said there would not be any pressure to reduce funding, and if there is, he would resist it. I thank him for saying that and I have no doubt that it will be his attitude to the matter.

Senator Feighan spoke about the process being an eye-opener and about listening to people with disabilities. The more that people with disabilities are seen out and about in ordinary places doing ordinary things, the more movement there will be on the objective of people with disabilities having full lives. That person can be on a bus going somewhere but it is more than just the journey; it is also a statement to the rest of the people on the bus and other people that Ireland is intent on ensuring people with disabilities can be out and about. It is a very important cultural shift in the work. It is more than just delivering seats etc. and I stress this important element.

The Minister stated that the NTA has seriously bought into this process when referring to the accessibility manager post. I underline a possible risk that could be avoided. There is the risk that the accessibility manager could become the person responsible in the NTA for what happens or does not happen. If there is an accessibility issue, the officer might become the person to talk to. I invite the Minister to accept that the responsibility should be with the board, the chairman and the chief executive. If they have a problem with the accessibility manager not doing the work, it is an issue they have to solve. I have seen it time and again that an organisation might have somebody dealing with accessibility issues and this leads everyone else to wash their hands of those matters. The person will have a critical role but the buck should stop with the people who run the NTA.

I still have confidence issues with the NTA and I certainly hope there has been a change. We have seen a fiasco in how BusConnects dealt with - or rather did not deal with - accessibility needs for people with disabilities. Go-Ahead buses were bought, delivered and painted before Ms Elaine Howley at a national disability inclusion strategy meeting asked to look at them. The viewing was sorted out over a weekend but they had been painted the wrong colour and all the money had been spent. This is what happened in the past year or two. Our first encounter with the Minister was during the bus strike, when reassurances were given there would be no diminution in services on the routes where Bus Éireann buses were being removed. I am not letting go of those recent issues and disabled people - never mind me - need to see the changes in how that organisation operates. Through the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, the authority has had the capacity to put conditions on private operators going on public service routes but it has not used it.

Let us move on. The Minister mentioned the increased funding for a retrofitting programme but we will want to see the expected outcomes for that. We will want to see how it will work out over next six or 12 months. What is the expectation of the Minister for the funding going into that? There was mention of grant applications for wheelchair-accessible vehicles and the taxi fleet. It is over 20 years ago, when I worked with the Irish Wheelchair Association, that some of the taxi trade unions came to us to seek support for their campaign to get VAT and vehicle registration tax removed from taxis if they are made wheelchair-accessible. My reaction was to ask why someone would buy a pup and then ask it to perform. Disabled people have told me they are basically given the two fingers by taxis at certain times. These are empty wheelchair-accessible taxis. Smacht must be put on that kind of behaviour. Disabled people have paid for it but they are being given the two fingers by drivers at times. If concessions are given upfront, we must make sure to get value for our buck. With technology the way it is, there should never be a case where a number of taxis are not available that are wheelchair-accessible. There all sorts of ways of co-ordinating them.

The national disability inclusion strategy was launched in July 2017 at Croke Park and, in fairness, the Minister attended. I do not have great confidence in that strategy having the horsepower, to use that term, to progress the work to implement the convention and disability strategy. It is a strategy spanning the four years from 2017 to 2020 but it was not launched until July 2017. There was a commitment to a mid-term review and the Minister has confirmed, with information he clearly got elsewhere, that there is a process to begin a mid-term review. This is halfway through the third of four years. This commitment did not have €20 million attached to it but it was a commitment for a number of public servants in Departments led by the Department of Justice and Equality to do a review by the middle of the four-year period, which would have been the end of last year. I remain sceptical that there is enough oomph in this. If more oomph had been put into this, the strategy could work, but I have not experienced it.