Mr. Peter Kearns:

I will give an example in relation to a point Senator Tully raised earlier about bus transport. I am still coming down from last Sunday. We won The Irish Times theatre award for No Magic Pill, the first Irish play with disabled actors. Last August, we spent eight weeks rehearsing in Artane. Three of the actors were wheelchair users. Two of the actors had to take turns every day to get the bus. There was one bus every hour.

They had to take turns getting there and back every day because the bus would only take one wheelchair user. The job was for eight weeks. They had to get to Artane and rehearse all day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., and then try to get back home to the other side of the city. That is a simple example of the situation for disabled people who are working professionals. Every day, the wheelchair users had to take turns depending on who got the bus first. That is an issue in relation to public transport. Disabled people have always been campaigning for access to public transport. Even in the play, No Magic Pill, the characters are pushing for access to public transport and not for special buses. Disabled people have a long history of promoting public transport, going back at least as far as the 1980s, when I was involved. That is a simple example of two disabled actors who won the award for best play and had to take turns getting the bus.