Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I come from a rural area, so Local Link services are very important. In my county, Cavan, and in general, is it intended to roll them out? Some areas are very well served and others are not - there is no service at all, practically. When I questioned it with Local Link, it said it was a lack of funding issue. It relates to what Deputy Murnane O'Connor said about lack of connectivity with other bus routes. Unfortunately, there is no train in County Cavan. The lack of foresight by previous governments back in the 1950s and 1960s saw to that. I do not know if there is any hope of asking for a train back in Cavan but I can hope and ask for it. Even to have good connectivity between Local Link and the inter-city or main Expressway routes would be great.

The design manual for urban roads and streets, DMURS, existed in 2013, so it obviously existed at Covid time but must have been totally forgotten. Outdoor dining was facilitated and led to disabled parking bays being moved without any consultation with disabled people or disabled people's organisations, DPOs. Some have not been put back where they were. They are purposely placed near services and shops but they ended up being pushed further out, which is an inconvenience, to say the least, for disabled people. Streets have outdoor dining, there are signs outside of shops on the footpath and rubbish is left out, all of which cause problems for disabled people, wheelchair users, people with mobility issues and people with visual impairment. Will something be done to improve the streetscape?

I think the NTA had an intention for accessible pole stops - a yellow pole with a flag - to make them more visible for people with visual impairment or intellectual disabilities. That does not seem to have happened. Will the witnesses provide an update? Is there a minimum number of parking bays for disabled parking in a particular area? Does that come under the remit? Perhaps it does not. There seems to be a lack of space. Some 22% of our population identifies as having a disability. Not all of them may need a disabled parking bay but a percentage does. A point brought up by witnesses at this committee is that, while there is a roll-out of new accessible buses, which is very welcome, some are still not suitable for larger motorised wheelchairs. If there is space, it is only for one or two at most. There is a lack of awareness among some drivers when people go to board - sometimes they are left at the side of the road. We have had reports of drivers being extremely rude and refusing to ask someone to move a buggy out of a wheelchair space and being rude about it, which is not required. There is another issue, which Deputy Murnane O'Connor spoke about, which is disabled taxis. Disabled people have told me that they ring a taxi and it frequently does not turn up. They just do not want the hassle of having to bother with a wheelchair user when they can just as easily bring somebody else. It is very disappointing. Not everybody with a disability can use a bus or train. It depends on the level and complexity of the disability and they may need to get a taxi to bring them from place to place, such as work or education.