Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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22. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will ensure that there are no changes made within Iarnród Éireann that will result in the removal of staff from DART stations throughout Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14409/17]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Staff are being progressively eliminated from our DART stations. We have it on good authority there are plans to remove staff altogether from DART stations including those at Sandycove and Glasthule, Grand Canal Dock and Lansdowne Road and then move on to de-staff other stations afterwards. DART staff provide absolutely vital health and safety protection, line safety protection, access for people with disabilities and the elderly, passive surveillance against antisocial behaviour and are responsible for a range of measures which, if removed, will seriously compromise access and safety in our DART stations. I am looking for a commitment to the effect that the Minister will tell Iarnród Éireann to abandon plans to de-staff our DART stations.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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​The Deputy is presumably aware that issues such as staffing levels at train stations are operational matters for Iarnród Éireann and are not matters in respect of which I have any statutory function. I am, however, informed by Iarnród Éireann that it has not introduced staffing changes at DART stations but that the issue of station staffing is under review in response to changed customer behaviour.

The company's priorities in determining staffing levels at stations are: to ensure that busier stations are manned at all times; to provide more flexible station resourcing to respond to customer demand and improve response for customers requiring assistance, ensuring a balanced coverage of stations across the network; working with the live monitored CCTV system and contracted private security resources and liaising with the Garda to ensure a safe and secure environment; and working with its revenue protection unit to ensure revenue is protected.

Specifically for customers requiring assistance, Iarnród Éireann plans to confirm new pilot arrangements for mobility-impaired customers shortly that will dramatically reduce the current advance notification period and ensure a better response when customers requiring assistance cannot give notice. These new arrangements are being designed following extensive customer research and liaison with the company's disability users group. I am informed that the company will shortly be commencing recruitment for temporary employees to assist with customer service duties throughout the greater Dublin area during the busy summer months.

I believe I have a duty to ensure that accessibility is a priority, particularly as there is a national priority which extends certainly to stations, buses, trains and elsewhere. However, I cannot intervene in specific stations or staffing difficulties.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is very disappointing the Minister read - word for word - from the letter I received in response from David Franks, the CEO of CIE, and it typifies what is going on. I do not want to hear the propaganda of Iarnród Éireann as it axes staff and compromises health and safety. If there are no staff in certain DART stations, particularly at night, older and disabled people will not go to those stations. There will not be staff on site to help people with wheelchairs to get onto trains. There will not be people to prevent suicide attempts, and I will give the Minister an example. At Salthill and Monkstown DART station last year, somebody attempted suicide but because there were staff there the trains were stopped and the suicide was prevented. Later that night, at Killiney DART station, the life of somebody who threw themselves in front of a train was lost because staff had been removed. There have been a number of attacks around Shankill DART station because staff have been removed at night. To say it is not the Minister's responsibility to ensure safety and access for elderly people and people with disabilities, to ensure line safety and to ensure equality of access to DART stations is, frankly, disgraceful. I want a better response and I want an assurance we will continue to have staff to ensure safety and access.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett. I did not read word for word from David Franks's letter. I have not seen David Franks's letter, so, wrong.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I will give it to the Minister.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Yes, but I did not read word for word from it.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is word for word-----

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I have not seen it-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----David Franks's letter to me.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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-----and seeing as some of it came out my own head it is unlikely. Perhaps some of it is stuff which has come from inquiries to the company and I accept that.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Word for word.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I wish to make the Deputy an offer. If he has evidence of these things happening in those stations and if he has not received a satisfactory response to representations which, presumably, he has made about all of those incidents he mentioned, I would be more than happy, in the name of natural and human justice, to make representations as well to Iarnród Éireann and anybody else and ask them what has happened. If the Deputy has the evidence for the things he has said - I do not doubt him for one second - I will deal with it because these are important and serious matters. If incidents are happening because there are no staff at stations - which would be contrary to Iarnród Éireann's assurance to me that it is not de-staffing them - I will ask the company to respond to me and I will respond to the Deputy in turn in respect of these serious matters

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Let me assure the Minister that de-staffing is taking place. Killiney has lost its staff.

There is nobody there at night and it is seriously compromising access and safety. People in wheelchairs cannot get on the train if there is not somebody there to put a ramp out. They already have to give huge amounts of notice to get on the train.

Pat in the Sandycove station told me this Saturday that he was only on at 6.30 p.m. because of the rugby match, and there were otherwise no staff on duty after 4 p.m. Somebody arrived in a wheelchair on spec at 6.30 p.m., needing to get back to Clontarf by 10.30 p.m. That person was only able to get on the train because Pat was there and able to arrange for staff at the other end in Clontarf to be there for that person in the wheelchair to get off. That person would have been stranded in the wheelchair with no access to the DART if Pat was not there, and he was there only because of the exceptional circumstance of the rugby match. That is the reality. There is no access if there are no staff. I met a member of our own staff here, a woman, who gets off at Seapoint, and she said that she would not go to Seapoint station at night if there was not a member of staff there, because there is a long, dark alleyway. Attacks have increased around Shankill since staff were removed at night. This is an imperative issue and I want the Minister to intervene to ensure we have the staff to ensure equality, access and a community service provided by our DART staff.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I will reiterate what I presume is an offer which the Deputy will take up.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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What is that?

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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It is an offer which the Deputy will take up. Provide me with the facts, with the incidents and I will make representations and see how this gels with the statement that we should not introduce staffing changes at DART stations. That is important. I have to respond to it in a necessary way if it is having resultant effects and consequences, as the Deputy outlined. I have no hesitation about that. There has been a dramatic change in other ways, in customers' purchasing preferences and there has been changed customer behaviour. Where there is changed customer behaviour, it will result in prepaid ticketing and ticket vending machines being used increasingly, including Leap card and monthly and annual season tickets being used. If there is more automation and more technology being used, fewer staff will be used in certain circumstances. If it is leading to less protection-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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It is.

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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-----and situations where disabled people or people who are immobilised in other ways are not being properly protected or looked after, that is a matter which I will address in a general way. Please do not ask me to address individual stations. That is not a ministerial job. That is a job for the DART.