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

I do not know how many schemes there are where it has been suggested that somebody needs to co-ordinate between Departments on the issue of disability. It has also been suggested that the Department of the Taoiseach should take a lead role on this. We should bear in mind that we signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, UNCRPD. I find the Taoiseach's earlier response on what has happened to be shocking. This was a door-to-door transport service for people with powered wheelchairs and three or four buses used to take hundreds of people every day, for years, to medical appointments and to allow them to have a social life because they cannot use the normal public transport system. By the way, this service did not get a cent from the Department of Transport and it has been begging for a year for money to replace its buses and to deal with a financial shortfall. This company should not even have to exist because public transport should be doing its job. It is a not-for-profit involving mostly volunteers and the service is gone. Some of the most vulnerable people have no way to get to doctor's appointments and to get out of the isolation of their homes next week.

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