Ruairí Ó Murchú
Question:14. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Transport his plans in relation to making the public transport system accessible for all; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12139/22]
View answerThursday, 3 March 2022
Questions (14)
Written answers
In line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Ireland's National Disability Inclusion Strategy, 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.
To this end, all new public transport infrastructure and services are accessible from the design stage. This means that accessibility features, such as wheelchair accessibility and audio/visual aids, are built into from the start. Newer public transport systems, such as the Luas for instance, are fully accessible, as are all new buses purchased by the National Transport Authority.
We also have dedicated funding of over €15 million and a programme of works in place to retrofit our older and legacy infrastructure and facilities to make them accessible as well.
In addition, to making our “hard” infrastructure and services accessible, it is crucial to provide the “softer” types of support as well, to enable Persons with Disabilities to travel independently on public transport.
The NTA and the transport companies are very active in this field; they have a number of initiatives underway including the provision of Disability Awareness Training to frontline staff, the rollout of the Just A Minute (JAM) Card to assist anyone with a communications difficulty, and ensuring that information is provided in accessible formats for public transport services.
In addition, there is the Travel Assistance Scheme which is a free service managed by Dublin Bus that aims to give people with disabilities the confidence they need to use public transport. Under the scheme an assistant can accompany people who need help using public transport and give advice how to plan a journey on Dublin Bus, Luas, DART and Go-Ahead Ireland services. Due to the success of the Scheme in the Greater Dublin Area it is planned to extend it to include Cork later this year which will be of great benefit in the region.
While my Department and its Agencies have responsibility for open public transport services only, we work closely with other Departments and Agencies which have responsibility for dedicated and specialist disability transport services. An example of such collaboration, with colleagues in Health and the HSE, was the launch last year of non-emergency transport services in Leitrim. This scheme enhanced local rural public transport services and improved the number of stops at key health and care centres, thereby negating some of the need for specialist, dedicated services. All the vehicles used in this pilot are accessible and low floor to meet the needs of many service users.
I am strongly committed through the provision of new and retrofitting older infrastructure, as well as by supporting softer measures and collaborations, to continue to improve the accessibility of our public transport system.