A REPORT to the Government is likely to recommend legislation to force CIE, taxi firms and other transport companies to make their vehicles accessible to disabled people.
The report, from the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, is likely to be published in November, an official at the Department of Equality and Law Reform said yesterday.
It is also expected to recommend that the State be obliged to provide a transport service for people with disabilities in areas not covered by CIE.
The recommendations are included in a report prepared for the commission by its working group on transport and mobility.
"Accessible transport must be a basic right, upheld by law," it says. Detailed legislation should require all transport companies to make their services accessible within a set time frame."
People with disabilities now face sometimes insurmountable barriers in getting from place to place, according to the report.
They include:
. Rail stations where disabled people cannot reach ticket windows, get onto platforms or get from the platforms onto the trains.
. Buses which many disabled people cannot board.
. Taxis which are difficult to get into and out of.
. The absence of any transport service in some areas.
. Long delays for wheelchair users at airports while wheelchairs are being loaded.
. Refusal by some airlines to carry more than a certain number of wheelchair passengers on a flight.
The report is also strongly critical of the school bus service. Most school buses are old and wheelchair unfriendly, it says. Disabled children are lifted on and off "like luggage" and drivers can refuse to lift any weight over 10 kilos.
Even buses serving special schools and day care centres sometimes lack wheelchair lifts and clamps and seldom have safety belts or harnesses, the report claims.
Profoundly deaf children as young as four travel long distances, unsupervised, on mainline trains twice a week to get to and from residential schools, it says.
The report notes that both the DART and the new Arrow Dublin suburban services have accessible carriages. The policy of Iarnrod Eireann is that all new carriages will be accessible to everyone, the report notes.
The full report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities will also cover a wide range of other issues. The Commission received reports from a number of working groups last year. Since then, some disability activists have been disappointed at the delay in finalising the report.