People with disabilities and Dublin City Transport Plan

Council is not listening to concerns

Letters to the Editor. Illustration: Paul Scott
The Irish Times - Letters to the Editor.

Sir, – I refer to the Dublin City Transport Plan (“Attempt by group of councillors to halt Dublin transport plan fails”, News, April 29th). This is a life-altering project for disabled persons. The failure of Dublin City Council and the National Transport Authority to meet even their most basic requirement under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to closely consult with disabled persons’ organisations (DPOs), which are the representative organisations of disabled people, has in my view set back the rights of disabled persons by a decade.

What disabled person would join or stay involved with a DPO when their organisation’s views are allowed to be passed over in such a manner?

It seems it is easy for us all to support the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in principle but not so easy in practice. – Yours, etc,

FINIAN McGRATH,

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(Former minister of state for disability issues),

Drumcondra,

Dublin 9.