Erin McGreehan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I personally know of one case. A young man, who has come before these Houses cannot use the bus fleet because it is inaccessible for him due to his wheelchair not fitting. When he goes to Leeds, however, he can use the transport there. I am not sure about this but he told me the same manufacturer builds our buses and I think the roads are similar. Leeds is the same sort of city as those throughout Ireland. Are we ordering a new fleet that will be accessible to everybody? More and more people are using high-powered wheelchairs, unfortunately. Our population is growing, so the number of users is growing. We want more and more people on public transport. If someone is barred from using it, that means he needs to buy a very expensive vehicle to transport himself. His family cannot use public transport because they cannot leave him behind. It means an entire family is blocked from using public transport, which means there is perhaps a car on the road that does not need to be there. He is prevented from flying off to Dublin whenever he wants to. I accept what Ms Graham said about the vast majority and I know we have to upgrade the fleet, but are our new buses, on which we are spending millions of euro, accessible for all our people? We are spending money.