Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday I put down a Commencement matter in relation to the operation of accessibility services in DART stations in my area. It was ruled out of order and I understand the Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, may not have direct responsibility for Iarnród Éireann and or other transport services but the reality is they are public realm services. It is absolutely unacceptable and unreasonable that a wheelchair user or a person with other mobility issues should arrive at a train station and find that they cannot get on the train or cannot get to the far platform because a lift is out of order or they have not given notice or a ramp is not available, or whatever it is. A great deal of public money was spent installing fancy lifts with bridges across the DART platforms at places like Blackrock, Booterstown, Salthill and other stations in my area. I welcomed that as I think it was a progressive move but it seems that as often as not, lifts are out of order. When they go out of order, there seems to be no urgency to get them operational again. It is neither fair nor reasonable to expect wheelchair users to have to ring up the DART station the morning of travel to find out if they are going to be able to get on the train when they get there. Nor is it reasonable for them not to have any notice or when they find out that the lift is not working today that it is not going to be working till next week, or whenever it is. It is really important that the State puts down a marker in relation to accessibility. It should not matter whether one has a mobility issue; public transport should be for everyone, whether it is a DART or a bus. There are all kinds of other issues with Bus Éireann and its facilitation of wheelchair users. However, in terms of these particular issues, lifts can be fixed. If they are broken, they need to be fixed as a matter of urgency in order that everybody can use public transport.