Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 293: To ask the Minister for Transport if he has developed initiatives to improve accessibility for older people in rural and urban areas to public transport; the details of these initiatives and their location; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17569/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's Sectoral Plan under the Disability Act 2005, titled Transport Access for All, contains time-bound targets for the progressive realisation of accessible transport in Ireland. It sets out a series of policy objectives and targets for accessible public transport across all modes – actions to make trains, buses, taxi and hackney services, as well as air and marine transport, accessible to people with mobility, sensory and cognitive impairments and older people. The Plan is based on the principle that through accessibility improvements to the public transport system for people with disabilities, access for all people will be improved. In general, the time scales for the various elements of the Plan provide for completion by 2015.

Among other things, the Plan envisages that by end 2012 all urban bus services will be fully accessible and that by 2015 all vehicles used for stage carriage and rural services will be wheelchair accessible and incorporate facilities to assist older people as well as people with mobility, cognitive and sensory impairments. The 2008 edition of my Department's Sectoral Plan, which is available on the Department's website www.transport.ie, outlines the progress which has been made in improving access to public transport for older people and people with disabilities since the first plan was published in 2006