Accessible transport is still a myth for many physically disabled people in Ireland. I want to outline to the House why I believe this to be the case. Last week, reports of people with a physical disability being transported, against all health and safety guidelines, in the engine room of Iarnród Éireann trains made the headlines. The subsequent controversy, and earlier reports in the Irish Examiner, The Irish Times and other media, indicate that this was not an isolated incident.
Over the May bank holiday weekend, two wheelchair users on a shopping trip to a south Dublin shopping centre spent three hours unsuccessfully calling ten taxi companies in order to return home. They were forced to go to the local fire station from where they were transported home in an ambulance, yet there are over 1,000 wheelchair accessible taxis operating in Dublin. Where are those taxis? What is happening? Can the Minister explain this? This has happened despite the setting up of a Commission on Disability, the enactment of an Equal Status Act, changes in the taxi industry. Two people had to spend three hours calling ten taxi companies in an effort to get home.
Dublin Bus recently placed advertisements entitled "Transport for All" in the national newspapers to highlight the introduction of new accessible buses. Only 10% of the Dublin Bus fleet is accessible to people with a physical disability. Perhaps the advertisements should have been entitled "Transport for All, if you happen to live along certain bus routes".
The Department has recently issued licences to private bus operators, for example, Aircoach at Dublin Airport, without conditions requiring that vehicles be accessible. The Government, through its inaction in the area of promoting equal rights to accessible transport for all citizens, is colluding in excluding a large number of people from travelling and thus excluding them from participating in their local community, never mind accessing employment. We already have an 80% unemployment rate among the disabled.
Does the Minister agree that the Government is in breach of the Equal Status Act, 2000, in denying people with a physical disability the right to a transport service? Will the Minister agree that calling something accessible does not of itself make it accessible? What is the point of having accessible taxis, buses, rail carriages, albeit a limited number, if they are accessible in name only? What does the Minister intend to do to ensure that the rights of people with physical disability to accessible transport are vindicated and protected? Is it not time the Government enforced its own legislation? Why has the Minister not yet met any of the representative groupings of disabled people who have been seeking such a meeting since December last year?
The Minister should be aware of the distress felt by disabled people who are increasingly unable to access taxis as the drivers with accessible taxis plates, issued prior to deregulation, are opting to sell their accessible cars in order to operate saloon cars which do not involve the same financial costs. Five months have passed since deregulation of the taxi industry, but the strategy around accessible taxis has led to a decrease in the numbers, according to reports from people trying to access them. No resources have been made available to local authorities to allow drivers to undergo training in the operation of ramps as recommended by different groupings and as suggested within the Taxi Forum.
There are no mechanisms or resources available to sanction drivers who blatantly refuse to offer their service to disabled customers, particularly at taxi ranks. All of this contradicts the intent of the Equal Status Act introduced only a month prior to the Minister's deregulation, a reality reinforced on the announcement of the measures not requiring all taxis in respect of which new plates are issued to be accessible.
I look forward to the Minister of State's comments on this serious human rights issue.
