John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Senator should not laughing. The Minister of State said, "While the lack of standards is one issue, another obstacle is likely to arise in the procurement of universally designed playground equipment." I have a sense, and it is up to the Government to convince myself and others that I am wrong, that one obstacle after another is being gratuitously thrown out.

The amendment to the Citizens Information Act proposed to have something commenced that these Houses and the President passed 12 years ago. I acknowledged, as has the Minister of State, that there is a service in place. There is not a big money deal here. The cost of a director of advocacy was mentioned, which I find frivolous.

Returning to transport, the NTA currently may set out accessibility standards under the current legislation but the problem is that a decade or so ago the authority said that it might do something and set out accessibility criteria for private buses, so how does it now become a problem that there may be a cost implication? It has been dealt with. Where does the money message apply in that respect? The NTA has been given the green light; the problem is that the officials have not got off their bums and done it. Two years ago, they told the country that there was no diminution in service when they were making savings in Bus Éireann and they took public buses off three routes and only left the private services. There was no diminution in service except for people with mobility, hearing and visual impairments. Those people were the butt of this. Where do we stop talking about what we are going to do and tackle the issue of vindicating people's rights?

The Minister of State stated, "While the Bill highlights a significant gap in the current minimum requirements for sanitary facilities under Part M of the building regulations 2010, the manner in which it approaches the issue is problematic in that the Bill proposes to amend the building regulations directly." I will tell him what is problematic from the perspective of people in this State: they cannot with dignity change a child or an adult who needs it. Perhaps I lack imagination but I cannot for the life of me see that this is a life and death issue for the State in terms of funding. The Bill does not say that when it becomes legislation in the morning that all these measures must be implemented immediately.

I said at the start that what makes John West the best is what John West rejects. We have gone through five or six iterations to come up with a balanced and thoughtful approach. I do not say we have it right. I look forward to Committee Stage soon. There is no reason to fail to do that. If it does not happen soon, what will have been done is that this Bill will have been kicked out of play. We can say that if we do not get the evidence that the Minister of State says is there. He should put it up in front of us and let us deal with it. Some people were almost critical but I did not go further. This Bill is very measured. The Government must come out and back up the points made here. It is totally unfair to people who struggle with these issues.

The Minister of State acknowledged rightly Councillor Dave Quinn, who was recently elected to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, and Councillor Francis Timmons.