Transport firms that fail people with disabilities should face penalties – report

People with disabilities do not have confidence that once they make an appointment to access a train, as is required if they need assistance, that they will be able to get off again at their chosen station.

That is according a new report on access for people with disabilities, which points out that while access “infrastructure” such as ramps and lifts are available, lifts are frequently out of order and the staff to assist people with disabilities are sometimes not available.

The report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Transport and Sport, calls for minimum standards of accessibility to be set and monitored by a statutory agency with powers to impose “sanctions” on transport companies that fail to assist people with disabilities.

Independent Senator John Dolan, who is chairman of the Disability Federation of Ireland, told the committee it was “bad enough” to live a life where the use of public transport forced continual compromises in journey planing, “but routinely it might not work at all”.

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Because of “staffless stations” he said people with disabilities could not have confidence going out that they would get back. He told Minister for Transport Shane Ross the real problem was not always because there is a lack of [wheelchair accessible] buses “but because there is no authority to say ’you better bloody well make sure that the system accommodates people with disabilities’ ”.

The report recommends that the National Disability Authority be given powers to monitor and enforce access for people with disabilities. *

Mr Dolan told Minister for Transport Shane Ross that he should be prepared “to whip this on a regular basis” to ensure the report’s recommendations were acted upon.

Committee chairman Fergus O’Dowd said Mr Ross should return to the committee as frequently as every two months, to ensure the 16 key recommendations in the report were progressed to achieve “equal access for all citizens”.

In response Mr Ross said he did not believe the committee “wants to see me every two months”. He said people with disabilities “cannot feel confident that they will be able to either get on or off the bus or train. Nobody should feel that way”.

He said Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann city fleets were 100 per cent wheelchair-accessible; as was about 86 per cent of the Bus Éireann coach fleet.

He noted that 17 rail stations have been built to accessibility standards since 2007, but said that of the 143 rail stations on the Irish Rail network, just 84 were accessible. He also said he was “conscious that significant gaps continue to exist, not least in bus stop infrastructure outside of the cities”.

* This article was amended on November 29th, 2018