Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue I am raising today concerns wheelchair accessibility on Bus Éireann route 480 between Donegal and Sligo towns, which includes access to Institute of Technology Sligo. This has been raised particularly by a lady living in Ballyshannon, Victoria Matthews, who has protested and campaigned very hard on this. She is a wheelchair user. She intends to do a course in the institute of technology in Sligo and there is no public transport to bring her there because there is no wheelchair accessibility on the bus serving that route.

When she started this campaign, many others in similar situations in many parts of the country raised the issue and there have been articles about this issue in The Irish Timesand other newspapers. When we talk to people in Bus Éireann the answer we get is that it is moving toward a situation where transport will be accessible to all. To do that properly it needs, in as many places as possible, particularly relatively short routes, such as the one from Donegal to Sligo, to use the buses with low access. When the bus pulls in a short ramp comes out and the person with the wheelchair is on the bus very quickly. That is the model we need to see in most places. Bus Éireann in Sligo tells me it has several buses doing that but they are not allocated to that route and it says it does not allocate the buses to the routes, that is done by the National Transport Authority, NTA. That is a disconnect that needs to be resolved.

I am sure the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport has a written reply telling me about all the places where there is public transport that is accessible to all. There are many routes in rural Ireland like this one, where people in wheelchairs and people who have difficulties and disabilities want to access public transport, not just from an equality point of view but also because it would enhance their lives and give them a sense of a future by doing courses in college, as this lady wants to do, or employment opportunities they may want to take up but that they do not even consider because travel to those places is closed off as there is not proper access on the bus routes.

I look forward to the Minister's reply. Vicky Matthews is starting this course at the end of next September. We need to see fully wheelchair-accessible transport in place between Donegal town and Sligo IT, and Sligo town, on that route 480 before then. I appeal to the Minister to make that happen.

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