Mr. Hugh Creegan:

A major upgrade programme for lifts at railway stations is ongoing. The problems were that lifts were being vandalised and many of them were reaching the end of their lives. Spare parts were getting exceedingly difficult to get, which meant that when a lift went out of order, it was not a matter of getting a part off the shelf. Irish Rail would have to wait a week to get parts in to repair the lift. A major programme is going on to replace or upgrade the lifts. Work on 14 stations was completed in 2020. The intention is to complete the work on 22 stations this year.

In terms of lifts being out of order and people's awareness of that, my understanding is that Irish Rail has a section covering station information on its website, which provides information on which lifts are out of order. That information is certainly updated on a weekly basis and perhaps more frequently. The ambition is that those lifts will be replaced with more modern lifts. Lifts located in places where a high degree of vandalism has occurred are now being connected to a control centre and when a person presses the button, it can be viewed on CCTV camera before the lift is allowed to operate. That system is now in place at stations and is working successfully to reduce the amount of lift damage that is occurring. That was the core cause of lifts being unavailable.