General Secretary Dermot O’Leary said;

“The appalling treatment meted out to our fellow Citizens on a daily basis is a sad indictment on those that are tasked with providing Public Transport for all our Citizens, the NBRU, at our Biennial Conference today in Cork, will demonstrate how those with disabilities are spurned and shunned as they try and conduct the their basic entitlement of getting on a bus or a train, there is little point in trying to placate those unfortunate enough to have a disability with fancy statements on accessibility when the opposite is the case.”

Mr. O’Leary went on to say:

“Rather than rely on anecdotal evidence from the disability community and our frontline members, the NBRU commissioned a video to clearly demonstrate that we as a society, have a long way to go in achieving full and equal accessibility, we have dedicated a significant portion of our Biennial Conference to this issue. I, in the interests of balance and fairness, have to acknowledge that some our politicians, led by Minister Ross, Fergus O’Dowd and his Joint Oireachtas Committee have stepped up to the plate in recent times and produced a Report with sixteen recommendations on this issue. However we now need immediate action, supported by the necessary resources from Government and the NTA to deliver on the Oireachtas Committees report, making pre-election promises for a fancy bells and whistle Metro set to cost €3.5b, whilst at the same time failing to deliver on the Full Accessibility to Public Transport for all our Citizens, is nothing short of shameful, it is surely time that people questioned the role of the Minister of State for Disabilities on this most basic of human rights.”