Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Brady for raising this very important matter. It is quite unusual for a Deputy to be questioning a constituent and making that constituent accountable for what happens in his or her own constituency. However, I am happy to answer his question about accessibility.

I take the Deputy's point about reduction to a four-hour notice period not being sufficient. People with impaired mobility are currently required to notify train stations of their intention to travel at least 24 hours in advance if they require assistance. I agree that this is totally unacceptable and that we should aspire to total equality between people with and without disabilities in accessing public transport. Irish Rail hopes to commence, early in the new year, a pilot project in respect of the DART which is aimed at reducing the period of advanced notice from 24 hours to four by guaranteeing staffing across grouped stations and ensuring flexibility to enable staff to move between stations to provide assistance. Irish Rail anticipates that the pilot project will run for six months, at which point the information gleaned will be used to inform how best to develop its customer service across all networks. I hope that particular experiment will extend beyond Irish Rail to Dublin Bus and other public transport services.

I completely accept Deputy Brady's bone fides. He highlights the need for haste in this matter. Things seem to be moving very slowly. The amount of money that has been allocated to improve accessibility this year and into the future has increased enormously, and will, while I am a Minister, increase even faster. The four-year capital envelope for public transport announced in budget 2018 includes a multi-annual allocation of almost €28 million for the accessibility retrofit programme for the period 2018 to 2021. This represents a trebling of the previous allocation for accessibility under the plan. That is a convincing commitment to public transport accessibility, on which I insisted. I recognise that difficulties exist not only in the context of the downgrading of the DART but also in other areas of public transport. That is why we have given such a large increase to improve accessibility. It is also why we are launching this pilot scheme to see if we can reduce the notice period. Ideally, there would be no notice period. However, we cannot achieve that overnight.

There are also other projects involving Dublin Bus. In conjunction with the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Finian McGrath, I launched a "Please Don't Buggy in the Wheelchair Zone" campaign with Dublin Bus recently. The purpose of this campaign is to deal with the issue of buggies blocking access for people with wheelchairs. There is a public campaign to increase awareness about this issue. Please do not doubt the commitment of the Government to this issue. It is being hastened and is a priority. We will insist upon that.

On the issue of the Greystones Station, Iarnród Éireann has taken the opportunity to assess whether there is any commercial interest in the ground floor of the station building, particularly as the existing area reserved for retail is vacant. While seeking expressions of interest, there has been no change to any arrangements - including staffing - of how the station functions. Iarnród Éireann will be in a position to assess the degree of commercial interest in the station building early next year. This will enable it to make a decision on the station's future use and it will be done in tandem with a review of staffing. Customer needs will be taken into consideration should there be any change.

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