Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry Chair. I am double jobbing. I am attending the Committee on Budgetary Oversight as well. We were talking about the budget.

I thank the witnesses. I read their submissions and I wish to raise a few issues. I was on the train going from Athenry to Dublin. Getting off the train in Heuston there was an older person with a Zimmer frame who was struggling to get from the train onto the platform. There was no assistance available. A passenger who came out of a door further down came up and helped her from the front and I was trying to help from behind. It was a bit slack that we did not have people on the train who could help.

I heard about another issue from students at the weekend. The western rail corridor from Athenry to Limerick is a real success story in terms of the number of people using it, especially young people but there are not enough carriages to meet the demand. What is happening is that people are standing and invariably people with disabilities are caught in that mix as well. I imagine it would be easy to get another carriage to deal with the demand. From an environmental point of view it would create a better experience for all passengers, especially young passengers, so that they would continue to use the train rather than deciding to buy a car as soon as they get a job. Things like that come to mind when we talk about people with disabilities. The important point when we talk about public transport is infrastructure. Reference was made to a lift not working.

The important thing is the management of it all and the education of the staff to understand what needs to be done to help people with difficulties. It is also about having people on the trains to make sure customers have a seat or whatever they require, or if they have a wheelchair, that there is help available to put them inside, although I know many people show a lot of goodwill. How can that be factored into the training for staff to have an awareness of people with disabilities?