Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Regional Group for bringing this forward. It is an area in which I have been significant interested for many years. I welcome the Minister and Minister of State because they are two of the more practical Ministers in this Government when it comes to getting things done so, hopefully, we will be able to work with them to deal with this very important and sensitive issue. There are lots of strands to it. I have been around for a while and have heard numerous examples down the years of the case referred to by Deputy Ó Murchú. You get over one issue and then you fall into another issue such as licensing or insurance because the person has passed on. There is a conglomerate of issues.

We know we need to fulfill the UNCPRD. We need to permit people to have equal access to all facilities and transport opportunities because everybody regardless of his or her status deserves equal access to public and private transport to lead full lives. I presume the Minister of State saw the "Prime Time" documentary the other night. It is so obvious that we are so far behind. I might come back to that. The report of the Ombudsman highlighted the inactivity on the part of multiple Governments. We do not have fit for purpose transport schemes. Households are spending up to €10,000 on various aids much of them relating to transport.

The disabled drivers and disabled passengers scheme needs to be completely redone. Please do not get me started on the primary medical certificate. The criteria for the primary medical certificate are so ridiculous at times. If the computer says "No", that is it. There is no common sense. There is no human being at the end of it. It is ridiculous. I have had so many arguments trying to argue on the basis of tiny issues. There is no flexibility and no humanity and that is something that surely can be changed relatively quickly.

There are three aspects when it comes to what we need to do. The first is funding. Anybody who needs access to transport facilities and funding such as a cash payment which is vouchable or upfront payments for adapting their vehicles should get it.

It creates an allowance of some sort. Second, is to ensure there is a way by which that can be implemented on both sides, whether through the payments system or through some form of adaptation payment. Third is capacity, which is a huge issue. It is very well to say we will give payments so people can have cars adapted or to be able to use public transport, private taxis or hackneys, but that runs into another issue which is that they are not there. Whatever access people have to public transport in urban areas, even able-bodied people find it nearly impossible to get a taxi in rural areas, as the Minister of State will know. These are issues that could be incorporated into the new scheme. I would like the Minister of State to think of the three components. I thought about that when I came in. I think it is the most complete way by which we can do this. We also need to change the way we treat carers and how they travel with people. We need to make sure it is less bureaucratic.

We all know buses need to be adapted. We should be fair to Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann but the NTA is the regulator. There are a number of bus schemes such as the rural transport scheme. They need to be adapted and they have not been. Some have, to be fair, and it is not their fault. It relates to contracts and funding. In relation to trains, I receive a lot of complaints about lifts, especially the lifts in Portlaoise and other stations where they have been vandalised and broken.

Returning to taxis and hackneys, it is over ten years ago since I proposed a rural taxi licence. I am glad a pilot if finally coming in all this time later. There are some people with disabilities whom this might suit. There will be people who can drive local people around. Wheelchair accessible transport may be a different story but it will be useful for those with other disabilities. Were this scheme to be widened, it would help people in rural areas and it is something that should be looked at. I was responsible the area of taxis for some years. The volume of taxis is a huge problem. We need to look at the taxi and hackney area as a whole. Taxis are not taking up wheelchair licences to the scale required. We need to re-examine whether we turn it into a standard licence, where there is only one licence, or something else. We have to deal with the number of licences, and much more so in rural areas, to facilitate people who have disabilities.

I will make three final points. We have funding for smarter travel. There should be funding for disability travel to enable local authorities deal with footpaths, lighting, etc. It would not a huge budget but it would be used very well. I have experience of situations where kerbs and so on needed to be done and the council in Tipperary dealt with them but there was not a specific budget for it.

The JAM card needs a public awareness campaign. The JAM card, which stands for “just a minute”, is a card that people with disabilities use to identify themselves in a public, or indeed private, setting to say without stigma that they just need a little bit more time for whatever they are doing. It should be put out there.

I will conclude with the national comprehensive employment strategy. The best thing anyone can have is a job. Many people with disabilities cannot guarantee that they can get to and from work. As I have said many times, I have an issue about our meeting our target on that. The statutory target is 3% now and will rise to 6% for all public bodies by 2025. We are not meeting our 3% target. Were I to put in a parliamentary question across every Department on every public body, and I would not waste everyone’s time, there is not a hope in hell they would come within a mile of 3%, so how are we to get to 6% by 2025?

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