Mr. Garret Doocey:

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members for the opportunity to appear before the committee today.

I am the assistant secretary in the Department of Transport with responsibility for land transport investment. I am joined by colleagues from my Department: Mr. John Boylan, principal officer with responsibility for public transport services and Ms Akriti Brady, assistant principal with responsibility for accessible and rural public transport services. I also note the attendance of my colleagues from the National Transport Authority, NTA.

As members will be aware, the Department’s role is to develop policy and manage overall funding for transport in Ireland. We acknowledge that public transport is more than just a means of getting from A to B. It is an essential lifeline that connects individuals to their communities, workplaces, health services, educational institutions and a myriad of other life-enriching opportunities.

Recognising this, we are committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and accessible public transport system for all. Alongside this commitment there are a number of international and domestic legislative frameworks, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, EU rules on passenger rights and the Disability Act 2005, which impose significant obligations on the Department to work proactively towards improving the quality of life of people with disabilities.

To this end, the national sustainable mobility policy published in April 2022 sets out a strategic framework to 2030 for active travel and public transport journeys to help Ireland meet its climate obligations. The policy is accompanied by an action plan to 2025, which includes the promotion of the principle of access for all across sustainable mobility services by, for example, equipping all bus stations with a wheelchair-accessible bus bay, providing customer service officers on all intercity trains and expanding the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles in the small public service vehicle, SPSV, fleet to 25%. All of which are due for completion by the end of 2025.

We are delivering on these commitments by investing close to €500 million this year in infrastructure and services that are accessible from the design stage, and retrofitting older infrastructure to make them accessible. To support this, the Department has a dedicated programme geared towards retrofitting existing public transport infrastructure, which has increased from around €3 million in 2017 to approximately €18 million in 2023. These funds go toward ensuring that our public transport services are not only modern and efficient but also accessible and user-friendly for everyone.

The Department continues to consistently liaise with advocacy groups, service providers and users to inform and shape policies that respond to the needs of persons with disabilities. I am pleased to note that the recent independent assessment of the national disability inclusion strategy conducted by the National Disability Authority, NDA, recognised the Department’s work in ensuring that information related to our accessibility consultative committee meetings, as well as the Department’s progress on accessibility more broadly, is comprehensive, easily accessible and regularly updated.

Transparency is at the core of our work on accessibility with the Department’s progress captured under the accessibility work programme, which combines public transport accessibility actions under a number of whole-of-government strategies and which publishes updates on a quarterly basis. Separately, each of the public transport operators has a dedicated disability user group that actively engages with disability representatives on operational matters, which were complemented in 2022 by the establishment of the NTA’s transport users advisory group. In addition, there is at least one representative from the disability community on the boards of the transport operators, the taxi advisory committee and the railway safety advisory committee.

While the Department’s remit covers open public transport, we actively collaborate across Government to ensure that the focus of policy, planning and transport provision is on a citizen’s end-to-end journey and that accessibility is at the core of our thinking. For example, we were members of the transport and mobility working group established under the national disability inclusion strategy and look forward to further engagement with other Departments and agencies to advance recommendations arising from that group’s 2022 report.

In conclusion, we remain deeply committed to building an inclusive and barrier-free transport environment. While significant progress has been made, there is always room for improvement. We, therefore, look forward to continued engagement with our stakeholders as we continue to work collaboratively to ensure that our transport system is accessible for all. I thank members for their time and I look forward to this evening's engagement.