Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I want to begin by reassuring the Deputy that I am fully committed to progressively making our public transport offerings accessible for all, especially for disabled people, persons with reduced mobility and older people.

To that end, addressing out-of-service lifts in train stations is particularly important given they significantly impact the ability of disabled and older people in particular to access services. I am pleased to say that funding for the Department's Accessibility Retrofit Programme - dedicated to wider improvements around accessibility - has increased from €3m in 2017 to €18m this year.

Irish Rail’s ‘Big Lift’ programme has also been instrumental in renewing and replacing life-expired and damaged lifts at stations nationwide. This is a separate four-year €18 million programme to renew and replace lifts at 52 stations across the rail network.

Due to funding under this programme, the number of lift outages has significantly reduced from 642 faults in 2019 to 212 across Ireland.

Irish Rail has advised it actively works to ensure that lifts re-enter service as quickly as possible in the event of a fault, in most instances within 24 hours. However, specific part replacement or major repairs can take longer.

Irish Rail is also installing a video security system on lifts under the ‘Lift Call’ programme to reduce instances of vandalism. This is a constantly-monitored system that releases the lift on request. Over 40 lifts have this feature installed in them to date nationwide.

As the Deputy will appreciate, my role as Minister relates to overall policy and funding, while the NTA has statutory responsibility for developing an accessible, integrated and sustainable public transport network. The NTA works with the public transport companies, including Irish Rail, who have responsibility for the operation and maintenance of services and infrastructure, such as lifts at stations.