Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 538: To ask the Minister for Transport the requirement for accessibility on CIÉ tour buses, private Irish tour buses and non-Irish licensed buses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30472/09]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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As set out in my Department's Sectoral Plan under the Disability Act 2005, the Department of Transport's Guidelines for the Consideration of Passenger Road Licence Applications under the Road Transport Act 1932 encourage all licence holders to use accessible vehicles. In addition, section 48 of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 sets out how bus services are to be procured under the Act from Bus Eireann, Dublin Bus and private operators and the main provisions that are to be included in related contracts. These include a requirement to provide for accessibility standards for the services in question. Furthermore, under section 13 of the recently published Public Transport Regulation Bill 2009, the National Transport Authority authority will be empowered to impose accessibility conditions on the grant of bus route licences. However, while this regulatory regime will empower the Authority to impose accessibility standards, the coach manufacturing industry in Europe has only in the last two years begun to produce accessible coaches drawing on research commissioned by the European Commission in this area.

There is no EU obligation which requires the use of accessible coaches and the number manufactured to date is still quite small relative to the total number of coaches in use. On the enactment of the Public Transport Regulation Bill, this matter will fall to be considered by the Authority, while ensuring that there is no barrier to the free movement of vehicles.