Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the speakers. I will address some issues in Carlow, the first being a case for which I must have put in approximately six appeals at this stage. I will give the gist of it. A man applied to Carlow County Council for a hackney licence. Carlow County Council saw the need and approved his application. It is for a rural part of Carlow where there are people with mobility issues and disability issues. The NTA refused the licence. I have appealed it and I will continue to do so. I know the man who applied personally. I cannot understand, in the hub of such a rural area, when Carlow County Council says it is needed why the NTA would refuse it. Perhaps the witnesses could look into it.

We were delighted to get the Carlow town bus service. It is an excellent service. It has only been up and running since the end of July and more than 1,000 people are using it per week, which is excellent. I welcome that it is wheelchair accessible. However, there should be an urgent review. I have received several calls from parents of children with disabilities and unfortunately since school has come back - schoolchildren are using the service, which is important - people who have a disability and were using it before and people with buggies feel they are missing their slot. Will the NTA carry out a review of it? It needs to be reviewed. In addition, the bus is not tackling certain areas. For example, the bus does not stop at Carlow train station. I have received many requests for it to do so. It is unreal that the town bus lane does not go Carlow train station. We have two bus routes, CW1 and CW2. They operate every 30 minutes, seven days a week. It is excellent.

I highlighted the next issue about a year ago and am still upset about what happened because there was no need for it. The railway station in Bagenalstown, which is a rural town in Carlow with a small population, became unmanned more than a year ago. The toilets were closed. I picketed with wheelchair users more than a year ago to ask for the station to be manned. As no one is manning it, the wheelchair accessible toilets are closed. People with disabilities, including wheelchair users, have to go online or they do not use it. My understanding from speaking to some of the wheelchair users who were using it, is that they do not use it any more. That is not forward thinking. It is very much backward thinking to have an unmanned railway station in Bagenalstown. Thomastown has also been left unmanned.

On free travel. many people have contacted me lately about having to book on rail and bus services in some areas. People who have disability issues and people who are visually impaired tell me that if they want to get a seat on Irish Rail on certain days, they have to book. I do not know if it is true but I have received several phone calls about it. If it is true, it needs to be addressed.

Ms Graham mentioned taxis and it is important to have wheelchair accessible taxis. My area is rural and does not have the same public transport as Dublin, Cork and such areas, so we need more wheelchair accessible taxis. What funding is in place? More are needed in my area. Is it because of funding and because they cannot afford it that taxi drivers cannot take it up? Is it too expensive? What funding initiatives does the NTA have in place for taxi drivers in rural areas where they have to go out on country roads? We need to give that service to people with disabilities, including mobility issues and other disabilities. I have been talking about these issues for a long time.

To return to the subject of Irish Rail, I met a lovely man in Bagenalstown when we were protesting who said it had been decided to give a small amount of money for a green area. A nice piece of green area would be done up so that when people come to the train station, it would look well. He was very nice man but I said to him that the station needs to be manned. We have a lot of wheelchair users and people with other mobility issues. As the witnesses will be aware, people are living longer, thank God, and they are using a wheelchair or have a walking stick. While our population is growing older, there are issues in the system, which is failing us. I am disappointed by what is happening in Carlow. It has been totally forgotten about.

I thank the witnesses for coming. I am glad to meet them and tell them about my concerns. Did they get them all?