Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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243. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress that has been made towards action 100 of the national disability and inclusion strategy 2017-2021 (details supplied). [16343/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Action no. 100 in the National Disability Inclusion Strategy (NDIS) is assigned to my Department, the National Transport Authority (NTA) and the public transport operators.

As Minister for Transport I am fully committed to strengthening public transport offerings and progressively making them accessible for all, especially for Persons with Disabilities, Persons with Reduced Mobility, and Older People. The NTA has statutory responsibility for promoting the development of an accessible, integrated, and sustainable public transport network. The NTA works with the relevant public transport operators, who have responsibility for day to day operational issues, to progressively make public transport accessible.

From a policy perspective, we are progressively making public transport accessible by ensuring that new infrastructure and services are accessible from the start and by retrofitting older facilities to make them accessible. My Department’s Accessibility Work Programme contains accessibility and disability actions from a range of policies and strategies. In addition to the NDIS, key policies are the Comprehensive Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities (CES) 2015-2024 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

The work programme is updated to align with meetings of my Department’s Accessibility Consultative Committee (ACC) and meetings of the NDIS Steering Group. The most recent meeting of the ACC was on 02 March 2022 and the next NDIS Steering Group meeting is scheduled for today, 29 March 2022. All of the Accessibility Work Programme updates from 2017 onwards, including updates on the NDIS action no. 100 referred to by the Deputy, can be found at www.gov.ie/en/collection/ed138c-work-programme/.