Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Cox, Mr. Douglas and Mr. Fox very much. I apologise; I missed some of the discussion because Senators were called to a vote in the Seanad. Forgive me if I repeat or ask questions about which the witnesses have already spoken.

I completely agree with all the points I have heard from the witnesses with regard to the absolute need for people with disabilities to be able to access both personal and public transport and the different schemes. It is quite shocking to think that the two schemes were done away with in 2013 because at that stage they were not considered equitable, and at this point there has still been nothing to replace them. Mr. Fox gave the example of two people in exactly the same situation who were three months apart and one could access the scheme but one could not.

I remember dealing with one mother whose child with special needs needed to go to a particular school but was not covered under the school transport. She had to drive her daughter behind a school bus bringing other young people who were able to avail of the mobility allowance but her daughter could not. There were spaces and seats on the bus. As she said, every morning she drove behind this bus for 45 minutes. It did not make sense. I am very glad the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for disability, Deputy Anne Rabbitte, has convened that group to look at the whole transport area. Have the witnesses' groups been included in that group? I hope representatives from the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers Association and from Family Carers Ireland have been included because that lived experience is really important. What key changes coming from that group do the witnesses believe need to be introduced to ensure a needs-led and rights-based scheme?

I have one or two other brief points. In terms of people being isolated and connectivity, it is important to every one of us but particularly to people who are isolated in other ways. It is heartbreaking to see people with disabilities being excluded sometimes from work, from social events and from being able to do the very basic things they want to do with dignity and independently. I worked with Special Olympics Ireland for a period of time and looked at the challenges. Where there was a Special Olympics club, it was very difficult for athletes to go to the activities because of the issue around transport. There seemed to be a view generally that the Local Link service was not fit for purpose, which is such a shame. We have quite a good service in Kildare. That is possibly down to the chief executive, Mr. Alan Kelly, but there is a lot of scope and potential to make it better. Could the witnesses talk a little about that? Obviously it is hugely important we have wheelchair accessible mini buses day and night to provide transport into hubs to train stations, etc. Yesterday we had the Oireachtas Work Learning programme, OWL, graduation where we have had young people with disabilities from both WALK and KARE working in Leinster House. It is wonderful and six of the ten have got jobs but I spoke to some of them about how they actually got into Leinster House. One particular issue is lifts at stations. Newbridge is my own local station and I am constantly on to it because the lift is not working. It is hugely important to get those basic things right.

I thank Mr. Douglas for talking about his daughters and I completely understand where he is coming from and the need that is there. We are all having a problem with availability of taxis at the moment but maybe he could talk a bit about the availability, accessibility and cost of taxis and about the specific areas around the rural transport scheme, the group the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, has set up.