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

I welcome everyone and thank them for their opening statements. Like everyone else, I welcome the positive work they have outlined that their organisations are undertaking. I will also refer to the Disability Act. Section 26 provides that public bodies are required to ensure their services are accessible to people with disabilities by providing integrated access to mainstream services. That is already 20 years old. The Act was enacted in 2005 and it is still not the case that all public transport buses and trains are accessible. It is very slow. I welcome the work that is being done but there is no excuse for this.

Mr. Kenny referenced universal access for all customers. That is what we should aim for. That is what we should have now. Disabled people going on a bus or a train should not require assistance. They should be able to access that route seamlessly. The lifts should be working, there should not be a gap between the train and the platform, the buses should have wheelchair spaces and so on.

I was talking to a young woman who is visually impaired earlier. I do not know if the witnesses are familiar with the IWA report, Getting Nowhere. If they are not, I suggest they become familiar with it. It is a very comprehensive report on accessible transport. The main bugbear was these floating bus stops. There is a very significant issue with these. There is the bus stop sitting there, then a cycle lane and then the road so people getting the bus have to cross the cycle lane. Who has right of way? This young woman is visually impaired. She gets on the bus and gets off at a bus stop like this. She said that one particular bus driver always endeavours to assist her but that she should not need to be assisted and that she should be independently able to get off her bus safely without fear of being mowed down by a cyclist going by because it is not clear who has right of way. I ask that no more of these bus stops be created and that the ones that are there be addressed because they are a danger for anybody with a visual impairment or mobility and for any other pedestrian. A child could run out in front of a cyclist to get on a bus. They are also a danger to cyclists because there could be a collision.

We want to see active travel, more people using public transport and more people cycling in a safe way, but that is not safe. It needs to be addressed. There was no proper consultation with DPOs around those bus stops.

Another issue raised with me was that bus stops used to be yellow in order that they could be easily seen. Suddenly, that has been changed for no reason, also without consultation. They are now grey with a small amount of yellow on them. That is not sufficient. People need to be able to see them.

I do not have many issues in respect of trains because, unfortunately, where I live, in Cavan, we do not have any trains. Nor do we have any trains in Monaghan, which is the other county I represent. If I need to get on a train, I have to go to Longford or up to Dunboyne. I have used the Dunboyne one to get into the city, to matches and such, and it is great. I would love to know if there are any plans to expand and bring a train service back into Cavan. There was a service there at one time but the then Government, with no foresight, decided to close it down and let people build over the tracks.

Many issues have been brought up. I welcome the progress that has been made but, as Senator Clonan pointed out, we are still leaving disabled people out. If two wheelchair users want to socialise together, they cannot travel together on a bus because it will not take two of them. There are still a lot of issues to address to make sure there is seamless universal access.