International Day of Persons with Disabilities

30 November 2023

This year, International Day of Persons with Disabilities takes place on Sunday 3rd December. This is the day where we recognise people living with all kinds of disabilities, both visible and hidden. It is estimated that one billion people worldwide are living with disabilities, which can impact on their day to day lives and places barriers to inclusion in modern day society.

The aim of International Day of Persons with Disabilities is to promote the empowerment and help create opportunities for people living with a disability.

Following on from previous years, the Athlone Viaduct and Heuston station will be lit up in purple in support of the annual #PurpleLights campaign, a celebration of UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Speaking about #PurpleLights23, the campaign’s founder and member of the Iarnród Éireann Disability User Group Gary Kearney said, “This campaign is something very close to my heart. It's a day of celebration, inclusion and awareness where we shine a light on disability. I am really looking forward to seeing this year's engagement with the campaign. I have no doubt that we will have a wonderful response to the day.”

At Iarnród Eireann we are always striving towards providing a more inclusive service across each aspect of our business. More recently over the past year we have taken some steps toward creating a more inclusive service, some of these steps include:

• Dalkey station - footbridge opened to public on 20th June 2023
• Little Island station - Construction works 65% complete due to open footbridge to public January 2024.
• Banteer station - Construction works commenced July 2023, approximately 20% complete (proposed to complete footbridge May 2024). Main construction works are due to commence on the new DART station in Woodbrook (between Shankill & Bray) in October 2023. To be opened in Quarter 2 2025.
• Portmarnock Bus Connects scheme - Work has commenced at Portmarnock station to remodel the car park to suit bus interchange and improve access for pedestrians.
• DART Passenger Information System - There were 17 DART units to be modified with a new Passenger Information System which will have working announcements and customer information station scroll onboard. All 17 units have been completed and are in service.
• CX Awards - The Iarnród Éireann Customer Experience awards took place on the 7th September at the Aviva stadium. The Accessibility award went to Graham Byrne from our Revenue Protection Unit.
  Graham had an idea for a social story for customers travelling on our services that have additional sensory needs. We are now including the social story of travelling by rail in our sensory packs to customers.
• Make Way Day September 2023 - “Make Way Day” is a campaign that brings the disability and wider community together to consider the needs of people with disabilities in the public spaces we all share. Gary Kearney from our Disability User Group was part of the steering group in the Disability Federation of Ireland that highlighted the various obstacles that customers with disabilities face daily. Iarnród Éireann removed most of our sandwich boards and with the cooperation of our retail partners made stations clutter free.
• Assistance Programme - We are delighted to report that over 37,000 customers have received assistance from our staff to date in 2023.
• Dementia Understand Together - In Ireland, there are over 64,000 people living with dementia and this number is set to increase which means more and more of us will be affected by dementia in our lifetime. With 63% of people with dementia living within their community, dementia is not just a health but a social issue that needs a community response. Iarnród Éireann is delighted to partner with the HSE and the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland to help promote the new Dementia Community Inclusive Symbol. Iarnród Éireann ran two workshops with staff and the Irish Dementia Working Group
• New Seating - The first of our new internal seats have now been installed in Heuston Station. The new seats look well, and people are already making themselves comfortable. Thank you for the feedback and assistance from the Disability User Group to our workshops.
  
• Disability User Group – Iarnród Éireann work closely with our Disability User Group from design phase of new projects to improving the day-to-day experience for customers with disabilities. 4 meetings took place in 2023 with the full group and a number of direct meetings with DPOs and service providers.
• New Fleet Mock Up - Some of our Disability User Group made a visit to our new fleet mock up at Inchicore on the 9th March. Our Disability User Group have given some excellent feedback throughout the project. The new fleet is scheduled to enter service in 2025.

We will continue our work to be a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities across each aspect of our service.