Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have been listening intently. There are lots of good things happening. A bus link has started in Tuam. The service goes to Headford and up into Galway on a brand-new fully accessible electric bus. It is operated by a private operator. It cost him a lot of money. I have been on the bus and have seen it operating. It is probably where we need to get to.

I am not going back over old ground that has been discussed so eloquently by the Senator and others but there are a number of issues to mention. It is about joined-up thinking. The IWA action group in Tuam sought to talk to Bus Éireann about its bus fleet and was told the buses were accessible. However, if Bus Éireann hires in contractors, the buses are not accessible. That should be a condition when hiring buses in. Second, the bus stop on Vicar Street in Tuam is not accessible. Those in the group cannot use the bus because the bus stop is not accessible. How can that problem be solved?

One of the issues that has become caught up in all of this is that bus shelters and so on are now tied into active travel funding. That can be checked out but it is what I am being told. Effectively, funding for bus shelters comes from the active travel fund. Does active travel include accessible travel? Bus stops are as important as the bus. If you do not have the two together, you will not get where you need to go. The simple fact is that this is the only way people who want to go from Tuam to Galway for an appointment can do so. That is the case until Mr. Kenny and the gang put in the western rail corridor. Then we will get them to Eyre Square fairly fast. It must be ensured that all of those carriages are accessible to the disabled. This is an issue of joined-up thinking. When putting in infrastructure like a new bus service, we must ensure that all the pieces are together to make sure that it can actually work. On the bus link I have mentioned, there are no bus stops. It stops at a GAA pitch where there is plenty of room to pull in. We do not have to reinvent any wheels or create lots of paperwork as to what we need to do. In many cases, we do not need planning permission but to use our heads so that we can have something that is accessible for all.

We had a debate about disability services in the Dáil this morning. One issue that came out of it was the rights of people with disabilities. That is why we are here. It is not so much about talking about rights but making it so that we do not have to talk about those rights because they are being implemented. That is our goal. With public transport, there are a lot of things that are moving. We are all on the journey. However, where new works are being done or new projects are being put in place, they should be designed to the standard we need. It was interesting to hear that the buses used in the UK are not acceptable to the NTA. It is commendable that the NTA is not going to take what somebody else has but will instead go for best practice. However, when issuing licences, accessibility does not form part of the conditions in some cases. All those licences need to be reviewed and, where any are being renewed, the service should have to be at a level that protects rights. It is a simple thing not to use contracts that do not include such a condition any more. We should not have different conditions for different operators. Every public bus should be accessible to everybody who needs it.

One of Irish Rail's biggest problem is that its fleet needs to be upgraded. It is working on that. It needs more carriages on the likes of the Galway to Limerick line. Apart from passengers having to stand up, people with wheelchairs cannot be properly accommodated. We talk a lot about public transport being the cure for a lot of our carbon emissions and transport emissions. We need to make sure that the experience for everybody, no matter who, is good so that they will continue to use public transport. That is why the rights of all need to be accommodated within everybody's regimes.

The witnesses said that they have been developing an app for four or five years. Perhaps somebody somewhere is doing something similar that we could pick up and use. It might be possible to do that in six months rather than spending four years, which is a lot of time, at it, causing a lot of frustration.

I do not necessarily need any replies but, from listening to the witnesses, I know they are doing what they can. However, we may need to be doing more. It needs to become more normal. It should not be a case of putting in a clause here and there relating to disabilities. Such conditions should be in every contract and design specification for a bus or bus shelter. It should not be something we have to check. I could mention lots of things that are wrong with regard to accessibility and so on but I believe the witnesses already know what is wrong. It is just a case of the committee encouraging them to make sure that things are put right in the future and that gaps are not left.