Written answers

Thursday, 15 February 2018

Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport

Services for People with Disabilities

Photo of Margaret Murphy O'MahonyMargaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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26. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will report on the Government’s pledge to invest to make public transport services more accessible for persons with disabilities. [7630/18]

Photo of Shane RossShane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Accessibility features, such as wheelchair access and audio/visual aids, are built into all new public transport infrastructure projects and vehicles from the design stage. Newer systems such as LUAS are fully accessible.

In Budget 2018 I secured a trebling of the funding provided for the accessibility retro-fit programme as part of the 4 year capital envelope for public transport announced. An amount of almost €28 million is being made available for accessibility upgrades for existing older infrastructure in the period 2018 to 2021. The additional funding will facilitate the continued roll-out of the programmes to install accessible bus stops, upgrade train stations to make them accessible to wheelchair users and provide grant support for the introduction of more wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs) into the taxi fleet.

I intend to improve upon that in our National Development Plan over the next 10 years and beyond. Investment in public transport will be accelerated under the NDP to support the development of an integrated and sustainable national public transport system.  A number of key new major public transport programmes are being considered under the NDP over the period to 2027. As with all new and recently developed public transport projects, these programmes will be fully accessible as part of the normal design. 

Under the NDP, there will also be a continued investment programme to fund retro-fitting of older existing public transport facilities to enhance accessibility. 

As I outlined to the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport last week, in addition to an increase in funding to improve accessibility, we also need to have people with practical experience of the difficulties experienced by people with disabilities at the decision making table. Following consultations with members of the disability community, I decided to appoint a board member with such experience to the public transport companies under my remit. The first board appointment will be to the National Transport Authority (NTA).

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