My speech is different from that which was submitted. I will circulate copies of it later.
The disability community has had some fantastic advocates, such as the late Martin Naughton and Donal Toolan. People like me, Jess Ní Mhaoláin, Padraic Moran and Alannah Murray need to continue their legacy.
Everything regarding inclusivity and integration for people with disabilities on public transport has been Dublin-centric. Every vehicle in the Dublin Bus fleet has both audio and visual next-stop announcements and is wheelchair accessible. Bus Éireann is the polar opposite. Evidence was presented to the committee that all Bus Éireann city buses are low-floor vehicles. That is inaccurate. There are two services that are not. The 221 Parnell Place-Hazelwood service has private hire buses on in the evenings on a fairly regular basis and they are not wheelchair accessible. The 226A service from Kent Station-Parnell Place Bus Station to Cork Airport is rarely serviced by low-floor buses. The real-time passenger information signs have the wheelchair accessible logo placed beside them on the route. There is a wheelchair-accessible bus stop on the Lower Glamire side of Kent Station. All people had to do was get off the bus and roll into the station for access to the platform for the Cobh and Midleton commuter services or onto platform 4, from where most Mallow and Dublin trains depart. When the new public transport interface was built on the Horgan's Quay side of the station, the company failed to include a ramp to provide access. If the lift breaks down, people on wheelchairs cannot gain access to the station. I will be happy to elaborate on that later in the hearing.
Colbert Station was recently refurbished and had its platforms done, but not to the height that is necessary. There are only two types of train coming into that station. There was a perfect opportunity to facilitate easier access to rolling stock. It did not happen.
There are two main train sets that operate on the Irish Rail mainline. A lot of misinformation is circulating about the accessibility of the Cork-Dublin mark-4 sets. There are seven carriages in each mark-4 set. Carriage A is for first class and has a wheelchair-accessible space but one has to pay a surcharge to avail of that. Carriage B is the buffet car, which has no wheelchair space. The other five carriages have wheelchair spaces but, unfortunately, people seem to believe they are for buggies, collapsible bikes or cases. The priority seats on the mark-4 set that are located near the toilets have not been highlighted as such. Someone needs to order some stickers to highlight them and then order the quiet carriage stickers to be replaced. In fact, some privatised UK rail companies are now increasing the number of quiet carriages on their services. On what Irish Rail calls its inter-city railcar, ICR, fleet, which generally consists of five carriages, there are two wheelchair spaces in the standard class and possibly another two if there happens to be a first-class carriage in the set, again subject to a surcharge. That is three fewer wheelchair accessible spaces.
The NTA is allowing Irish Rail to charge disabled people €5 each way to reserve a seat when EU regulation states this should not happen. Irish Rail is now allowing people to reserve priority seats, which the business community seems to like. One's chair has a table so one can spread out. There are not two people on the opposite side. These can be reserved free when a person buys her ticket online. The next time members go into any railway station to look at the booking office, they should ask how they would feel trying to do their business from a wheelchair. For me, as an autistic person, travelling on Irish Rail can be a nightmare but I have no choice. There are glass partition doors within the mark-4 fleet that are never utilised so they should be removed. Previously there were quiet carriages on the mark-4 fleet. Without any consultation, the company withdrew them. Not even the train hosts were told about this happening. While engaging with Irish Rail management on this matter, it honourably admitted that it had never factored autism into the corporate thought process. Irish Rail management has been absolutely superb with me. It has confirmed it had no one on the autistic spectrum on its disability consultation group. It has recently informed me it would be engaging with an organisation that was never in contact with it previously regarding advocacy. That is a concern for me.
Mr. Jim Meade of Irish Rail is a breath of fresh air, as is Mr. Frank Allen, the new chairman. They are both honourable people and have inherited a myriad of problems, thanks in large part to the previous corporate culture that was fostered and empowered. The two are doing their best to resolve this. Mr. Padraic Moran and I met Mr. Meade at his office in Connolly Station. It was a very open, professionally conducted meeting, the like of which Mr. Meade will never experience again. He has begun to undo the damage caused in the past and I hope will succeed in eradicating the culture that pervaded in certain sections of the company in respect of people with disabilities. Again, he is top class.
There are issues regarding the audio announcements not working in the toilets for people who are visually impaired. I invite Irish Rail management to inspect the high-visibilty strips that are supposed to delineate the door frame from the rest of the carriage. They have been rendered useless with age.
The train hosts on the Cork-Dublin service are an exceptional group of people who have willingly engaged with me. When I knew that I was coming close to sensory overload, they did their best to accommodate me and even brought me up to first class. The noise would totally knock me out.
Before I move on to Bus Éireann, I will deal with the Luas. A simple challenge for any member of the committee or the NTA is to try to board the Luas at peak times in a wheelchair. One has no chance. When Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the question in here as to what supports existed to ensure wheelchair passengers could board at peak times, the officials managed to evade answering. Perhaps the committee could write to Luas and request a formal answer.
I am going to return to Bus Éireann now and to what I was saying regarding the disparity between the level of integration on Dublin Bus and that on Bus Éireann. They are polar opposites. My rationale for that statement is supported by the facts outlined earlier. I implore the committee to ask the NTA to supply the tender documents which should have the specifications for the supply of buses for Bus Éireann and Dublin Bus since its creation.
As the Chairman is well aware, there are no dot matrix signs and audio announcements in most buses in the Bus Éireann fleet, as outlined previously. Mr. Ray Hernan, in his testimony to this committee on 7 February this year, stated Bus Éireann has had the audio facility since 2015 but has only recently begun the process of recording the names of stops. I recall a figure of 550 stops having been recorded, leaving 6,100 to be done by the end of the year. That works out at 20 stop names per day to be recorded. The visual assistive technology scenario for city services throughout the State is sporadic. The next-stop announcement is virtually non-existent.
Members might like to note that nowhere has the NTA or the company factored in the time for facilitating the use of high-sided wheelchair access lifts in any of the non-city services. I have presented to the Chairman a book called the board book that the members can examine at their leisure.
I recently met Mr. Aidan Murphy, chairman of Bus Éireann. Members will be delighted to know there is now a seven-day telephone service for people to access wheelchair services. I have been advised that there are major issues nationally involving the Bus Éireann high-sided fleet and that wheelchair lifts have seized through lack of use. That is the same with anything in life; if it is not used, it will seize.
Bus Éireann decided a few years ago to mimic Transport for London by decaling the sides of buses. This involves putting the routes on the sides of buses. It is an excellent idea except when one route is on the dot matrix destination board and another is on the decal on the side of the bus. That is extremely confusing for somebody on the autistic spectrum.
Radios on buses are also becoming an issue, with some drivers having their radios blaring, which causes sensory overload for people like me. It has become such an issue in some locations that some autistic passengers cannot even travel on the service because if they complain, they may get grief from staff. Maintenance issues, such as doors not being serviced properly, resulting in a whistling noise going through the bus, or panels rattling owing to their not being screwed in properly when changed, cause stress for members of the autistic community. Inconsiderate passengers with their headphones blaring, which creates a hissing noise, is the equivalent of a teacher dragging his or her nails down a blackboard.
The NTA needs to submit by-laws to empower transport staff to tackle these issues head on. Fixed penalty fines of €150 would soon stop this. The same rationale pertains to wheelchair-accessible spaces on buses. The NTA launched a campaign, Please Don't Buggy in the Wheelchair Zone, in association with the Irish Wheelchair Association and Dublin Bus. Why did the NTA not roll that out nationally? Mr. O'Leary will support my contention that drivers are nervous about addressing issues to assist disabled passengers in case they face disciplinary procedures due to a complaint from able-bodied passengers. Legislation would assist drivers.
The NTA has announced that it will conduct an audit of all bus stops in the State in 2018. Mr. Ray Hernan made an excellent point when he gave evidence which is that the names assigned to the stops need to relate to the location of the stop. I would be happy to provide evidence to support Mr. Hernan's contention later.
Bus Éireann can only operate the fleet the NTA supplies. When Translink was procuring its new Glider fleet a mock-up of a bus was built and people in powered wheelchairs were asked to come to the depot so that they could make the bus accessible before it went into production. I do not believe the NTA has ever engaged in such an exercise. Its actions over the replacement 717 service in lieu of the fully wheelchair-accessible X7 Clonmel to Dublin and Dublin Airport service indicate lack of forethought.
Rules have been introduced in certain regions. One region banned mobility scooters. They are allowed on Dublin Bus vehicles once a risk assessment is conducted to ensure that the batteries have dry cells. Credit is due to Ray Hernan, who is an honourable man. Once it was brought to his attention, the matter was addressed immediately.
The NTA appears to have given the private sector a free ride on accessibility. There is not a level playing field when it comes to the Expressway service Bus Éireann provides. There are three bus services operating the Cork to Dublin and Dublin Airport route, the X8, 704X and 707. However, only one is required to have a wheelchair lift, signage in both Irish and English, and accept the free-travel pass. There is a very simple solution. Those seeking to operate a bus under a licence awarded by the NTA must match the requirements imposed on Bus Éireann or otherwise they do not operate. When licences come up for renewal, the operators need to be told that these are the criteria and factor in the cost when they are tendering for the service or seeking the licence.
The NTA has decided to rebrand buses at an enormous cost. I am unaware of any engagement with the autistic community on this. Mr. O'Leary might be able to help me with the costings on this but if there are 950 buses within the Dublin Bus fleet and there is an average cost of €15,000 to repaint each, that amounts to approximately €14 million. That could fund quite of a bit of retrofitting.
I will skip what I was going to say about local authorities because Mr. O'Leary has already said it.
