Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Owens. Although I am aware that he is not quite set up yet, I congratulate him on his pending appointment.

As I mentioned in my contribution to the previous witnesses, we have two trusted organisations in front of the committee today. The previous session was with An Post, and now we have Dublin Bus. I loved to see Mr. Owens focus in his opening statement on continuing building the trust the people of Dublin have for this wonderful company, in which we feel invested and feel ownership of.

I wish to raise a number of points. Obviously, this is a period of change in Dublin Bus. I am not sure if we will see him at this committee before he departs so I want to put on the record that Ray Coyne will be moving on as CEO after seven years of operating Dublin Bus. He led on and brought forward climate and accessibility considerations, with great strides and great work, in his time at the company. I am sure a lot of this will be built upon, and that Mr. Owens will be part of the team to build upon that in his role as chairman.

His background is in disability services. I have been working with Dublin Bus on that in the past couple of years and a lot has been done in the standardisation of bus stops and level access. I have, however, been dealing with a number of wheelchair users who have larger wheelchairs - some wheelchairs are bigger than those used previously - where manoeuvrability on and off a bus is very difficult. In the context of wheelchair users and other people with limited mobility or other disabilities, and given Mr. Owens's experience and where he is coming from, what will be his area of focus for changes or improvements made? That is my first question. I might come in for a second.