Carl O'Brien
A simple trip into town can take days of planning for Ms Maureen Breslin.
She would love to go to a shopping centre to watch a movie, do some shopping, or just look around. But nothing is straightforward when you're a wheelchair user.
"It nearly ruins your life. When I can't get around, I'm housebound and it can cause a lot of depression," she says.
"I've been involved in a lot of committees; I'm not the kind of person to sit at home. But I've had to give a lot of them up because it's next to impossible to travel anywhere."
Ms Breslin, from Dunboyne, Co Meath, lives close to a bus route which goes to the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre. Some buses are wheelchair-accessible, but by no means all. And there is no way of knowing when they are available, she says.
"I also have a lot of hospital appointments. I fell into bad health a few years ago. The health board do their best to get a taxi, but they have murder trying to find a wheelchair-accessible one."
While the Government's long-awaited Disability Bill is expected to address issues such as minimum standards for accessible transport, Ms Breslin doesn't hold out much hope for change.
"There might be changes, but I don't think I'll live to see them," she says.
Mr Don Bailey, another wheelchair user, is more upbeat about the prospects for the future, but says much more work is needed in the years ahead.
He is one of the co-founders of Vantastic, a company which provides a transport service for disabled people in the Dublin area.
He is particularly critical of taxis, and says the service on offer to wheelchair users has deteriorated since the industry was deregulated a few years ago.
"An awful lot of taxis don't want to pick up wheelchair users. They say that they don't have an accessible car available, or whatever. We can't change that," he said.
Mr Vincent Kearns of the National Taxi Drivers' Union, however, said there needed to be a financial incentive for drivers to have wheelchair-accessible cabs, because of the expense and rapid depreciation in value of the cars.
"Around 30 per cent of the original wheelchair-accessible cabs are out of business because it isn't viable.
"They need exemption from VRT and VAT, which would halve their costs, if there's going be any incentive to maintain these cars," he said.