Ciara Conway (Waterford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a related point. Many of us have constituency offices. I too made it my job to have a ground floor office, but it was impossible to find a property to rent that would have disabled facilities on the ground floor. My concerns were twofold, I was thinking of people with mobility issues but also of mothers with young children who might want to access the office. It might be an interesting exercise for the IWA to do an audit of constituency offices and how they rate in terms of access. That would put accessibility four square in the minds of public representatives. The IWA might consider taking on that as an exercise. I would be delighted for somebody to come and do an audit of my office to highlight the issues.

During my time in college I was the equality officer in the Students' Union. One of the tasks we undertook was an accessibility audit of the campus. I remember what struck me, and this echoes the point made by Ms Boyle on whether a person with disabilities can do what another person can do. One of our findings was that the ATM bank machine was too high. I see in some places, they have been adapted, but in the villages and towns with which I am familiar the machines are of a standard height. Does the IWA get a buy-in from the banks and businesses? I think Deputy Byrne's suggestion of a tax incentive for businesses to improve accessibility is a worthy recommendation. For my part and for the committee's part, we will try to push it at Government level.

I invite the witnesses to respond to those points.