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

I thank the Regional Group for tabling this very important motion. As has already been said, the question of transport for people with disabilities is absolutely critical. Without a decent transport system, every aspect of their lives is diminished. This includes access to education, employment, a social life and everything. As a result, people with disabilities suffer disproportionately from poverty and in terms of the impact on their mental health. This is not merely grossly unfair because if we are serious about the UNCRPD we are, in fact, also infringing their rights. We are failing to vindicate the rights of huge numbers of people who have a disability. This failure has continued.

I was a member of the finance committee when the issue arose of there being a problem with the mobility transport grant and motorised grant. This was because it was discriminatory and if we opened it up it would cost a fortune so, therefore, we would have to reconsider the entire thing. It has been left on ice for eight years with no financial support for people. It is absolutely outrageous penny-pinching and the impact is pretty severe.

I want to instance one example of something that points to solutions and to the failure of the Government in this regard. I have raised this repeatedly. I think I have raised it with the Minister of State. I have certainly raised it with the Taoiseach. It sums things up. This morning, my office spoke to the group Accessible Community Transport Southside Limited, ACTS. It provides a door-to-door service. It was doing 1,100 trips a month prior to Covid and this reduced to 550 during Covid. As a result, this impacted on its ability to generate funding.

People cannot use their free travel pass on this scheme because it does not come under the Department of Transport. Ironically, Dublin Bus and Transport for Ireland advertise this door-to-door transport scheme for people with disabilities on their websites but do not give a cent towards it. Nobody will take any responsibility for this. The Department of Transport does not want it and the Department of Health does not want it. Will it go to the Department with responsibility for disability? We are not quite sure. Perhaps it will. The point is that for the want of €53,000 in immediate funding, it could close down. I understand it met the Minister of State. The last I heard, which was today, was that it had not heard back.

Therefore, the group still does not know whether it is going to get the money. It needs €250,000 to replace its fleet. It used to have ten buses and now it is down to four. This is disgraceful, given it is such a fantastic service. It is disgraceful that those who use the service cannot do so for free. The fare structure, which is necessary if the group is to fund itself, is such that €12 is charged for a journey between 0 km and 5 km and €16 is charged for a journey from 5 km to 8 km. As much as €35 is charged for a journey between 25 km to 32 km. Those concerned have to do flag days and stand outside shopping centres collecting money. It is outrageous.

There are similar services with which I am not as familiar, including Easy-Cab Travel Club, Lucan Disability Action Group, Cork Accessible Transport and Vantastic. They should be part of the public transport system and should be funded. They should not have to organise flag days and all the rest of it to avoid the possibility of closing down because of a lack of funding. They should not have to have me come in here essentially begging on their behalf. I hope this will be addressed as a matter of urgency. It is absolutely unacceptable. Public transport has a responsibility.

There are many with disabilities who cannot access a normal bus service because services are overcrowded and because there is only one wheelchair space on a bus. There are similar issues associated with the DART. In this regard, I want to raise the Access for All Ireland campaign. I pay tribute to Mr. Bernard Mulvany and Sean O'Kelly, who have campaigned so consistently. Again, they are substituting for the failures of Iarnród Éireann, the Department of Transport and so on. What do they do? They send texts to people saying the lift is not working at such a DART station and that if people go there they will be trapped or unable to get on the train. This happens to people regularly. Mr. Mulvany told me this morning that there are three different portals with information on what is happening in each DART station. One is online and its information never correlates with what is actually going on at the station. Another comprises the displays at the station, which show information that is different from the information online. Another portal, which, apparently, is somewhat reliable, is the office putting the information together. Therefore, there are three sources of information on whether the lift is working. Lifts are constantly breaking down. We have removed personnel from many DART stations. If you go to one and there is nobody to help you with your problem, you are in trouble, which in itself is a disgrace. We should put staff back in the DART stations.

The other point Mr. Mulvany raised - I was not aware of it - is that people in rural areas still have to give 24 hours' notice to get on a train or bus. That is outrageous. We had a fight up here about that and there were some improvements. While it is still far from perfect in Dublin, 24 hours' notice must be given in rural Ireland. Where is the equality in that?

This links to many things, including our failure to take seriously the UNCRPD and our ongoing failure to sign up to the optional protocol. Ireland is one of two countries that has not signed up to it. Why? It is because we are afraid we will be caught out. Ireland has one of the lowest levels of subsidy for public transport in general anywhere in Europe. We are penny-pinching with public transport generally by comparison with our European counterparts. Ours is more expensive, less frequent and less reliable. While it hurts everybody, it hurts people with disabilities most. As a result, they cannot trust the public transport system or risk using it.

In Canada, brilliant services similar to ACTS have been institutionalised. As the state directly funds them, people do not have to worry about organising flag days and whether funding will be available. They do not have to charge fares to their customers because the public transport system provides a door-to-door service to people with disabilities. That is the sort of service we need.

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