Séamus McGrath (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the establishment of the subcommittee on infrastructure. I want to raise the issue of the accessibility of our towns and villages for people with disabilities. I acknowledge a lot of funding has been spent under the active travel heading to improve accessibility but many challenges remain and we need to continually improve this funding. Recently, unfortunately, I heard the story of a wheelchair user who became dismounted and ended up on the footpath because of the poor condition of the footpath. This was in a large town. This is something that is not acceptable to any of us. We need to ensure we have sufficient funding to address these issues. I ask for an improved ring-fenced fund to be set aside under the active travel heading specifically to improve access for those with disability issues and mobility challenges in our towns and villages throughout the country.

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