Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 10 Dec 1998

Vol. 498 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Wheelchair Accessible Public Transport.

Mr. Sargent

I raised the matter of the need for wheelchair accessible buses yesterday at the Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport and last night during Private Members' time in the House. I am glad to have the opportunity to do so again tonight. It is an appalling indictment of the record of this Government in regard to people with disabilities that the need to provide wheelchair accessible vehicles in the context of new investment in public transport should have to be raised here.

The Minister will be aware of the protest being made at Heuston Station by John Doyle, who is the chairperson of the Bray branch of the Wicklow Wheelchair Association and who is active in the network of the Irish Council of People with Disabilities and Centres for Independent Living. He is also a member of the Eastern Health Board. Mr. Doyle is an informed and consistent voice in the area of disability. It is a disgrace that he must mount such a vigil at Heuston Station to have his voice heard. For my own part, I can but salute his courage, tenacity and leadership.

Surely the Minister cannot but be aware that the expenditure on inaccessible double-decker buses, to which she has committed herself, directly conflicts with Government policy as stated in the Strategy for Equality, the excellent report of the Commission on People with Disabilities chaired by Mr. Justice Flood. What has happened to the Government's commitment, arising from the work of that commission, to mainstream services for people with a disability? If the Minister with responsibility for transport is willing to set aside the principle of mainstreaming, as this decision indicates, what are the wider implications for initiatives such as the Human Rights Commission Bill and the Equal Status Bill?

Was the Government merely wasting the time, energy and patience of people with a disability in engaging in a consultation process if a contemptuously discriminatory decision such as this is allowed to proceed? Is the Minister aware of the Government commitment to disability-proof all programmes and expenditure to ensure that the needs and rights of disabled people are met within the general population as opposed to the historic default policy of ghettoising disabled people? Is the Minister leading her Department and the public transport providers back onto an undistinguished path in associating her name and her reputation with this ignorant and most hurtful decision?

The collective failure of the entire Fianna FáilProgressive Democrats Cabinet in respect of this decision and in respect of the very significant expenditure involved is a blatant disregard of the stated commitment to mainstream service for people with disabilities. The failure to provide a public transport infrastructure that is accessible to disabled people ensures the exclusion of that group of people within society from opportunities in the areas of employment and education as well as in regard to simple social and family outings and opportunities to exercise a meaningful independence.

Surely the Minister is aware that such restrictions follow on as an inevitable consequence of this decision. The budget of 1999, as announced here last week, included a scheme to encourage disabled people to take up employment opportunities. It provided a weekly payment equivalent to a single return taxi fare. This decision on segregated buses for the able-bodied shows how pathetic that budget provision actually was and demonstrates that it was little more than a figleaf offered by a Government which has shown a monumental failure to understand the realities of the experience of people with a disability. The European Union is a party to the decision that £8.5 million will be spent on the offending buses in a redistribution of funds originally intended for investment in Luas.

The European Commission itself is committed to ensuring that Structural Funds should not be used for programmes or practices that exclude any group in a member state availing of the fund. Ultimately, that is where this decision may yet come undone and I urge the Minister to reconsider it in the light of people with a disability, who could be any of us here who may break a leg or have some other misfortune as well as, for example, people who are confined to a wheelchair for life. I hope that will lead the Minister to review that decision and that efforts to deal with the tragedy of the traffic congestion which besets us all will not once again discriminate against the most disadvantaged in our society.

Minister for Public Enterprise (Mrs. O'Rourke)

I thank Deputy Sargent for his very fine contribution to this debate, for taking this issue to the floor of the House and for his question today which was not reached but to which he would have got an answer.

The Government is strongly committed to bringing about a situation where public transport facilities are fully accessible to all at the earliest possible date. It is also my policy that all transport operators, private and public, should, as far as possible, make their services and facilities accessible to people with a disability. Dublin Bus currently has 11 low-floor buses in service. As part of its 1999 fleet replacement programme, the company plans to purchase a further 19 fully accessible 33-seater midi buses. Dublin Bus expects to take delivery of the 19 vehicles during 1999. It is not enough but it is a distinct mark of what Dublin Bus plans to do.

Subject to CIE board approval, Dublin Bus also plans to begin a pilot-test programme in March for accessible double-decker buses. Low-floor double-deck buses have been operating in London for the past three months and Dublin Bus states that it hopes to obtain three such models from different suppliers for pilot testing over a six-month period. Up to three months ago there was not in production a double-decker bus with low-floor accessibility for disabled people.

Bus Éireann currently operates a low-floor bus on the Bishopstown route in Cork and a further ten vehicles destined for Cork and Limerick are due for delivery in 1999. Therefore, the ignorance of which the Deputy spoke is not evidenced in CIE's activities.

On the railway, it has been possible to achieve a high degree of accessibility of trains and stations to customers with a disability, including those who use wheelchairs. It is now a firmly established policy of Iarnód Éireann that all new trains and stations, together with major refurbishment projects at existing stations, should take account of the needs of mobility-impaired customers. Almost all of the approximately 90 mainline stations are accessible by wheelchair users and all of the newer rail passenger carriages, including the DART, are accessible. All DART trains, of course, are already accessible. Recent practical examples of Iarnód Éireann's policy includes the new enterprise service on the Dublin-Belfast line and the upgraded station at Kilkenny. In addition, the new DART stations at Drumcondra and Clontarf Road and the upgraded Dún Laoghaire station are all fully accessible. Iarnód Éireann has also published an accessibility guide for passengers detailing the accessibility features available to disabled users.

The buses acquired by the two CIE bus companies in recent years have many features which make them more responsible to the requirements of people with a disability. The Dublin Bus wheelchair accessible service provides accessible transport to local facilities provided by organisations such as Rehab, Cerebral Palsy Ireland and the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Ireland as well as to UCD in Belfield. The company also operates a wheelchair accessible Omni-link service on the north side of Dublin which has proved very popular with passengers.

Dublin Bus is committed to increasing its quota of accessible vehicles as evidenced by the company's recent announcement that it plans to purchase a further 19 fully accessible 33-seater midi buses. Such low-floor buses are already operating in other European cities. We hope to get those in 1999.

All three CIE companies have established user groups involving representatives of people with a disability to advise on the inclusion and improvement of facilities for the disabled. The user groups meet regularly and have visited various locations to inspect facilities and potential new equipment. CIE recognises their input into the formation of their policy.

The new low-floor double-decker buses are not currently available anywhere. They have only just been built. Models which may be suitable have been brought into service in London in the past three months. They are manufactured by the Dutch company DAF, and Dublin Bus states that it hopes to obtain one of these models from DAF, one from Volvo and one from Dennis early in the new year for pilot testing over a six-month period. Dublin Bus has agreed to test these prototype buses here and if they are suitable it will get more of them in the context of its ongoing fleet replacement programme. Dublin Bus has already given a commitment that all single-deck buses due for renewal will be replaced by low-floor equivalents. The company will continue to adopt that policy.

Let me make it clear that CIE, in all of its companies, has a very definite policy of accessibility and has proved it by those actions. We would all wish that every bus in Ireland were accessible in the morning, but it is not physically possible to obtain suitable buses. The company is moving along a very progressive route, and I have urged it to continue to do so. We are not talking just about people with a disability, we are talking about mothers or fathers with young children and buggy cars. We are talking about old people who cannot step up on high steps and people who have some disability caused by age or accident. It is not just wheelchair-bound people who are affected. Many other people are also affected. I will continue to closely monitor those developments. We have sent it to the EU Commission.