Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, to the Seanad and I welcome the opportunity to discuss the national human rights strategy for disabled people between now and 2030.

I wish to make three key points. The first is something we have discussed before in the House. It has come on my radar in the past 12 to 18 months when discussing it with activists within my own community, namely, Changing Places facilities. In the UK, there are Changing Places facilities right across the country in every large town and village and in public buildings. It is something that wheelchair users find exceptionally useful. It gives great dignity to them and their family members and it is something we really need to catch up on in Ireland. I would welcome the consideration of its inclusion within this and perhaps other strategies. I sit on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and I raised this with Irish Rail last week. Any renovations to train stations, or bus stations, across the country should include Changing Places facilities so that we give greater dignity and access to people who require it.

I wish to compliment the activists in Mayo who have put it on my radar - Kevin and Anne Loftus, Avril Greham, Geraldine Lavelle and Peter Scully - and who have all been pushing and advocating for this. There are towns - all over 10,000 in population - in Mayo that have no facilities, so a young family have to plan to go shopping in a certain town and are beholden to their child not having to use the bathroom until they go home. All plans are made around it. In this day and age, that is unacceptable and we need to make sure policy catches up. We need to incentivise, whether it is private business or public properties, to retrofit to ensure we have Changing Places facilities as widespread as possible.

The second point I wish to raise relates to transport access for bus and rail. This is something that has been raised with me regularly. I believe there is a challenge with the booking system on Irish Rail where it shows users who are trying to book a disabled space that there are no spaces available. When they rock up to the train station, though, there are plenty of spaces available. There is some disconnect between the booking system and the reality. It is something that needs addressing and I have raised it with Irish Rail directly, but I would like to air it here in the Seanad.

One of the final points I wish to make relates to line painting. The standard of line painting right across the country is not good enough. I can only speak for Mayo where I keep a close eye on it and I have asked the local authority to purchase a line painting machine. Basically, many of these disabled bays, loading bays and dropped kerbs at crossings that wheelchair users rely on to cross the street are often blocked. There are supposedly only two contractors that offer line painting services. For many parts of the year, we are restricted by inclement weather so we have an hour of a window to do line painting works. Often, it is not done and it creates huge difficulties for everyone in society, but most importantly the most vulnerable - wheelchairs users and other people with disabilities - who are negatively affected by this.

Finally, with the last couple of seconds I have, I acknowledge the work of the autism-friendly town initiatives popping up all over. It is a great initiative. There is one in Ballina, one in Westport and I believe others in Belmullet and Ballyhaunis as well. These are great initiatives to make our towns and villages more inclusive. I welcome the inclusion of autism-friendly initiatives within the strategy. It is something we need to support. With that, I acknowledge Rebecca Connor-Wood, Janette Kenny, Elisha Beattie and the whole team in Ballina who have spearheaded this and all the different volunteers across the country, supported by AsIAm, which is leading this through a community, grassroots, ground-up approach, which is very welcome. I thank the Acting Chairperson and the Minister of State.