Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Transport if consultations have taken place with a company (details supplied) or if he has given any directives or issued any guidelines in regard to disability placement on trains to facilitate persons who suffer from a disability to obtain a placement on a train or in asking passengers to facilitate a disabled person on a train; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that signage to this effect has been changed on trains and it is causing problems for disabled persons; if he has plans to ensure that on whatever public transport a disabled person seeks to use, the signs, facilities and so on will be in place to ensure that the disabled person will be facilitated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6296/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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I appreciate the Deputy's concerns and while I have a general responsibility for the promotion of improved accessibility across all transport modes, the issue of signage is essentially a matter for Iarnród Éireann.

I have been informed by Iarnród Éireann that it is currently undertaking a complete modernisation of the signage on trains and this will be completed in 2011. This new signage is compliant with the new EU legislation requirements set out in EU Commission Decision of 21 December 2007 concerning the technical specification 2008/164/EC relating to "persons with reduced mobility". This became effective on 1 July 2008. These signage requirements are for use by all EU railways and represents best practice in terms of layout and content. Iarnród Éireann has also indicated that it has not received any representations from any party regarding the signage for persons of reduced mobility.

Improvements to public transport in general are being advanced through the implementation of Transport Access for All, my Department's Sectoral Plan under the Disability Act 2005. The Plan is available on my Department's website www.transport.ie and was first published in 2006 and reviewed in 2008. Among other things, the plan 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. Preparations are already underway for a further review of the plan this year which will include an extensive public consultation process.