Mr. Billy Hann:

There were a couple of other matters that were raised by the Deputy. With regard to the issue of accessibility, 100% of the Dublin Bus fleet is accessible. Approximately 88% of our fleet has a wheelchair space and a buggy space, and both of those can be used for wheelchairs if the buggy space is available. We have an assisted travel programme, which we are very proud of, and we have had more than 1,800 assists this year alone. This is basically to work with people with disabilities to ensure they have as comfortable a journey as they can. We will also have a workshop later this week, on Friday, with Spinal Injuries Ireland to speak to it and get its concerns and issues. As a matter of fact, some of us will go down O’Connell Street in wheelchairs to get a feel for what it is like for them. It is something we take very seriously and work very hard with those groups to address.

The point the Deputy makes about the non-nationals working in our organisation is incredibly important and came into the decision we had to make to withdraw service in full. We have more than 78 nationalities working in our organisation. There is no doubt they were nervous last Thursday night. Again, that was part of the decision-making we had to take account of it when we were withdrawing the service, or at least partially withdrawing it in the initial phase.

From helping those employees, it is all about communication. We have been reaching out to all our employees, not just those who are non-nationals, and offering them and advising them about the employee assistance programmes we have in place to help them as best we can. Local managers are aware of this and are briefing and helping staff as best we can. There is no doubt about it. We had a number of our members of staff did not turn up for duty on Friday morning because of their concerns and nervousness around that. We will work closely with them to try to get them to a stage where their confidence is good enough to come back into operation. I hope that addresses the Deputy’s questions.