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CALLS ARE BEING made to end the need for wheelchair users to give 24 hours notice to use Irish Rail trains.
In a parliamentary question, Independent TD Tommy Broughan raised the issue of a lack of access to rail services for people with mobility or sensory impairments.
He asked to see the steps Minister for Transport Shane Ross is taking to address the fact that people with impairments must give at least 24 hours notice before travelling by rail.
Major issues
A spokesperson for the Irish Wheelchair Association (IWA) told TheJournal.ie that providing at least 24 hours notice is a major issue for its members.
“This is quite a major issue for quite a few of our members, especially people with disabilities living in rural areas because there are many trains and train stations that are unmanned throughout the country,” the spokesperson said.
The mandatory notice is specifically troubling to those who need to travel last-minute, according to the IWA.
It’s a barrier for people if they want to travel spontaneously, or in emergency situations they will be unable to travel because they haven’t provided the local station with 24-hour notice.
In a response to Broughan, Irish Rail said that if a station is unmanned, it will send a member of staff to the relevant station to assist the passenger to board or alight the train with a ramp. If this isn’t possible, the train driver will be notified and will help the passenger, as required.
However, earlier this month a wheelchair user, Saoirse Smith, told RTÉ Radio One’s Liveline that she was forced to wait 15 minutes for Irish Rail employees to help her exit a train.
“When I got to Connolly then, I had to wait 15 minutes for someone to come get me off the Dart,” she said.
They didn’t know I was on my way. Thank god for these kids that stood in the door and made sure it didn’t close. I just felt really embarrassed. I’m holding up everybody and they can’t go where they want to go, because I’m waiting to get off the Dart.
Echoing Smith’s comments, the IWA said that its members still live with the uncertainty over whether there will actually be someone at the alighting station.
“While in one place there would be assistance from an Irish Rail staff member, there’s an uncertainty that there would be someone at the other end of their journey,” the spokesperson said.
Irish Rail requirements
Currently, people with mobility disabilities must provide the following information to Irish Rail at least 24 hours prior to travel:
Government solution
In his reply to Broughan, Minister Ross stated that “accessibility features are built into all new public transport infrastructure projects and vehicles from the design stage”.
“With regard to existing infrastructure, there is an ongoing Accessibility Grants Programme to upgrade public transport infrastructure and facilities to help improve transport accessibility across the country,” he said.
He confirmed that funding is being provided to the National Transport Authority this year for accessibility upgrade works at a number of rail stations, bus stations, and for a Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Grant Scheme.
Irish Rail’s response to Broughan stated that a full review is taking place for mobility impaired users.
Iarnród Éireann are currently undertaking a full review of the DART customer experience for mobility impaired users which includes input from the Irish Wheelchair Association and the NCBI.
“As part of this review, a significant reduction in time for advance notice by customers who need assistance is under consideration as previously mentioned.”
Irish Rail did not outline whether a review of services other than the DART will be undertaken.
The recommendations are set to be released before the end of the year.
I work there. This has nothing to do with Enda Kenny or the government or hospitals in the south east. It’s simply a matter of how products perform in the markets and what’s in demand. Has been happening in this type of industry for years. It’s all about competition.
Sorry to hear to Alison. Real world economics as you point out.
This has everything to do with Kenny. I was made redundant a year ago and one of the reasons was because the government changed the percentage of redundency paid that an employer could claim back so companies panicked and let staff go. They are in front of the cameras when new jobs are announced but they do nothing for those losing their jobs.
Seamus sorry to hear you were made redundant but companys dont just make people redundant to clame relief on it the business was more than likely in alot of trouble before the government decided to alter the relief
Hold on folks…these are voluntary redundancies….no one is being forced to go…..in addition, voluntary leave normally comes with large lump sum payments well in excess of a years salary depending on the length of service, and very low tax implications and people leaving still get full social welfare payments …..these schemes can allow people move on and take up other careers, retire early or go back to study…
They are not voluntary. 206 will go. No choice there. The voluntary part is that you can nominate yourself to be one of them. If they get enough that way. It’s fine. After that its LIFO
The economy is f**ked
Really? You’d think someone would have said something????
That though first crossed my mind about five years ago now!
Another blow to the South-East. The region has been worse hit by the recession than anywhere else & now more job losses. & worse still, the government is trying to downgrade the regions hospitals & force the regions people to travel to already overcrowded hospitals in Cork & Dublin. There’s a big march in Waterford City on Sunday. There’ll be a huge crowd & the government might finally get the message that enough is enough & stop these mis-guided plans to break up the SE health boards to please vested interests in Cork & Dublin.
5 years and no improvement, what do the next 5 years hold for us ordinary working class people. Scary thought.
Think your comment sums up a lot Julie.
The march is in Saturday 2pm starting at Ballybricken in waterford city – especially important for those in south tipp as Clonmel hospital will not fare well if the south east hospital network is broken up.
I think it’s Saturday TFM.
Another silent protest that will make the news for 10 seconds.its time for the people of ireland the stand up for themselves no more silent peacefull protests
I would agree Shane. We need to go a la Francais. But you have to have unions who are not protecting a Government party on order to do so.
Yes it cant involve the unions and lets do it on a week day and cause real disruption instead of doing it on a saturday and getting a permit of the cops to do it.every town and city has goverment buildings they should be picketed and if the cops want our suppourt hopefully they wont be heavy handed.
Sorry. My mistake. Saturday at 2. Ballybricken to Mall.
They don’t have anything in their heads only meeting the targets of their EU masters. Lets cut cut cut and tax tax tax so we can keep the eu happy and hold onto our extravagant salaries, feck the reality of what we are doing, who cares we still living the boom lifestyle.
We are the little people, they don’t care about us. Enda cares more about Angela then he does about you or me simple as. Democracy is dead.
I’ve said it before…but what would u do differently? I genuinely want an answer and I’m not trying to start a fight..I feel like more could be done..but what? Taxes are bad for people but they are probably necessary, as with cuts in some instances..but honestly what else would you do? Where would u get cash to run the place?
Julie there is job losses all across europe and america .. You cant blame it all on enda and co .. We wont recover untill america& eurpoe shows recovery
For starters by not spending more than you raise in taxes. Seems fairly radical………..
Now remember I do not have an advisor worth 100,000 or so of tax payers money.
Would have defaulted on PN, Michael Taft said no consequences to defaulting on it
Would not have poured so much money into clearly failing banks
Would have demanded a write down.
Would have caped salaries of civil servants 100,000
Scrapped allowances
Reduced pensions of the likes of Bertie
Means test child benefit
Scraped property tax( people are getting nothing for that money)
Taxed wealth instead if low earners.
Put in more favourable rates for our natural resources
Locked up corrupt politicians and bankers not let them walk away with massive pensions and bonuses and hire them elsewhere
I agree with SF budget I just think it is fairer and more equal. Populist is what governments and their followers like to call it but I disagree.
As I said there has to be alternatives to something that is not working we have tried 4 years of austerity where has it got us. It doesn’t work and if it continues there is a lot more hardship and the economy has not seen the worst of things yet.
Jay funny you mention job losses in the rest of Europe and America, they both are following the monetary policy of austerity clearly not working for them.
julie so your answer to the question is that enda cause the job losses because he has an advisor and has implamented austerity and is cutting the counrties finance bill by taxes ans ==d cuts .. you must not have been here in 2007 when we went bust i suppose that was endas fault aswell how dare he do that .. governments can be blamed for alot if things but the loss of 100 jobs in tipperary surley isnt one of them … “THE MAN” cant be at fault for everything julie
Jay that is rubbish we wouldn’t be in such a bad state only for the goverment paying debt we dont own.
Enda and Co are to blame in most cases.
iswhatitis please explain how they caused this? baring in mind they were not in power when we went put and they also can force people to buy good or services from companies
They turned a gambling debt into a sovereign debt Jay.
Eamon that didnt cause the recession. The recession came first
That is going to be a big loss for all them families. 5 years this mess is running and no change for the better. We are so f****d, we need business people to get the country going not schoolteachers. Where will it all end.. disaster
Agreed..unfortunately many of the “business” people of the last 10 years are now bankrupt/ turned out to be crooks
A restructuring plan. Always used in the real world unfortunately. Never in the Public Sector.
100 jobs announced this mornin 200 lost this afternoon .. Not at all wat we want
Everyday we lose on average 42 jobs
Whats your basis for that ?
Cso calculation – over last 20 months
Ouch i didnt think it would be that much …
Strange that Abbott had a large graduate recruitment drive this year given all the job cuts they announced. Some dodgy goings on. Probably hoping to get rid of people on big contracts and bring in grads for a 1/4 of the price. It’s not right and companies doing this need to be named and shamed.
They’re process is heavily dependant on front line operators and like all big manufacturing faculties they’re trying to lean up and automate that process as much as possible. The redundancies won’t effect the engineers too much as they’re looking for 188 op’s to go
In Spain, you can buy a years supply of these products for the price of a pint.
The Abbott Vascular Clonmel facility manufactures vascular products, i.e stents and catheters. These products are used in hospitals, these products are not available over the shelf, and these products are certainly not available in Spain for less than the price of a pint.
I was in the Canaries last week, and I bought a year’s supply of catheters for a fiver. We’re being screwed in this country.
Sinead, I think you’re confusing the product made in the Abbott Clonmel facility with another entirely different type of product. The catheters made in Abbott Vascular Clonmel are vascular catheters used to treat patients with artery blockages. The people in Clonmel are making a sophisticated product, which is only marketed to hospitals, and are only used by physicians. Due to this there is no such thing as having a personal years supply.
Yeah I bought 6 months supply of pacemakers in France last week for a tenner each,… Jeez⬇
That’s what Kenny would have you believe Liam..it’s all his fault..open your eyes
They may be voluntary starting off, but if they don’t get the numbers which I don’t think they will
it will soon become compulsory,I also work there and its certainly not a years pay that’s on offer
have your say