Councillors vote for Dublin City Centre Transport Plan to go ahead with greater consultation with disabled groups

A Section 140 motion to delay the Dublin City Centre Transport Plan was amended by councillors so that it no longer includes a delay while also instructing council management to undertake greater, ongoing consultation with Disabled Persons Organisations.

The amendment was approved with 25 in favour and 22 against. The amendment said that it aims “to ensure close consultation for DPOs, without throwing out several thousand submissions”.

At least some Social Democrat councillors voted against the amendment because they intended to vote for their own amendment. Some councillors of other parties had said they were to vote for the first amendment, but they may have been influenced by Cllr Damian O’Farrell (independent), who said if people were to vote for one of the amendments, it should be the second one.

Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) are rights-based organisations. DPOs are groups run for and by disabled people. DPOs differ from disabled service providers — there are no paid positions in DPOs, and they are not lobbyists.

As previously reported, the motion to delay the project had been signed by Cllr O’Farrell, Cllr Nial Ring, Cllr Christy Burke, Cllr John Lyons, Cllr Mannix Flynn, Cllr Noeleen Reilly, Cllr Patricia Roe, and Cllr Cieran Perry. All of them are independent councillors except Cllr Roe, who is in the Social Democrats.

Cllr O’Farrell claimed that the amendments would be unlawful because the process isn’t being reset, but before the vote on the amendment, the council’s law agent, Yvonne Kelly, outlined her view that setting aside the full consultation as proposed by Cllr O’Farrell’s motion would be legally unsound.

Richard Shakespeare, chief executive of Dublin City Council, said, based on concerns raised, a number of changes have been made. These include that it was checked that the number of blue badge parking spaces would still be the same and access maintained to all of them, that the length of the bus gates will be minimised so people can set down, and the hours of operation of the bus gates will be adjusted to be less than 24 hours so allowing extra access at night time.

Shakespeare outlined that there had been an issue on the side of one DPO when they tried to reply to the council, while he also apologised that another was not contacted earlier. He said there are active invites to meet two DPOs who want to consult their members before meeting. Other DPOs who had been contacted have not replied.

The amended motion, which was agreed on, was put forward by Cllr Michael Pidgeon (Green), Cllr Declan Meenagh (Labour) and Cllr Daithí Doolan (Sinn Féin).

The amendment alters the original motion to replace the text after the phase of “Mindful of the above commitment” with:

“…this Council calls on the Chief Executive to:

• arrange close consultation meetings with any Disabled Person Organisations who wish to be consulted on the proposed Draft Dublin City Centre Transport Plan, including on the final location of bus gate
• update the consultation report presented to elected members on 8th of April 2024 to reflect these consultations; circulate this updated report to councillors
• ensure that all registered DPOs are contacted properly as required,
• meet with the National Disability Authority and review the supports they offer and identify ways the city council can improve our consultations on disability issues, and consult with DPOs on how this communication can be improved.”

The rationale for the amendment said that: “Over 3,500 people made submissions as part of the consultation. Setting aside over 3,500 submissions would not be respectful of their time and work. This amendment aims to ensure close consultation for DPOs, without throwing out several thousand submissions.”

The meeting has already been archived and can be watched back online at dublincity.public-i.tv.