Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

It is very disappointing the Minister read - word for word - from the letter I received in response from David Franks, the CEO of CIE, and it typifies what is going on. I do not want to hear the propaganda of Iarnród Éireann as it axes staff and compromises health and safety. If there are no staff in certain DART stations, particularly at night, older and disabled people will not go to those stations. There will not be staff on site to help people with wheelchairs to get onto trains. There will not be people to prevent suicide attempts, and I will give the Minister an example. At Salthill and Monkstown DART station last year, somebody attempted suicide but because there were staff there the trains were stopped and the suicide was prevented. Later that night, at Killiney DART station, the life of somebody who threw themselves in front of a train was lost because staff had been removed. There have been a number of attacks around Shankill DART station because staff have been removed at night. To say it is not the Minister's responsibility to ensure safety and access for elderly people and people with disabilities, to ensure line safety and to ensure equality of access to DART stations is, frankly, disgraceful. I want a better response and I want an assurance we will continue to have staff to ensure safety and access.

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