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

There have been many requests, including those I have made, that the Taoiseach's Department take responsibility for an area that crosses many departmental demarcations as a result of which there is no proper integrated and cohesive approach, namely, disability. The Taoiseach has to look at this again. I will give him a simple example.

I have raised ACTS with him a few times, the door-to-door transport service for people in wheelchairs and with disabilities in my area. It could go under at the end of this month for the lack of €50,000 and the replacement of some of its buses. That voluntary-run, door-to-door service is advertised on Transport for Ireland as a service available for people with mobility problems who cannot use the normal transport system. It does not get one cent from the Department of Transport and is about to collapse, because it is voluntary run, for the lack of €50,000 for running costs and money to replace some of its buses for some of the most vulnerable people.

Why on earth is there no joined-up thinking between transport and disability, for example, to maintain an absolutely critical service for such vulnerable people? That is an example of why we need the Taoiseach's Department to spearhead the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD, and a cohesive approach to disability services.

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