Mr. Eoin O'Herlihy:

I will answer the Deputy's question on whether designers and developers are implementing universal design houses. At present, as Mr. Cunningham and Ms Lally have said, designers, architects and builders are designing houses to meet the requirements of Part M of the second schedule of the building regulations. Most designers will use technical guidance document M, TGDM, and the guidance in TGDM 2010 only requires the dwelling to be visitable. This means that a person can approach the main entrance to a house, go into a habitable room, such as a living or dining room, and there is a requirement that a small WC is provided, generally on the ground floor, which a wheelchair user can use. In principal, houses are designed to allow someone come to a house to have a cup of tea or sit in the living room and socialise etc. Unfortunately, the designers and developers will only design to meet the requirements of the building regulations and use the minimum guidance, unless otherwise advised. There seems to be confusion between the local authorities and the approved housing bodies on what levels of universal design should be achieved when going beyond the minimum requirements of the building regulation.

I have seen situations in which a designer or developer seeks advice, and we ask what advice the local authority has given on what standards or what guidance should be used. Unfortunately, the local authorities themselves do not know and are unable to give substantial guidance. There is no consistency among local authorities on what guidance should be used for addressing universal design. To sum the situation up, designers and developers will only meet the requirements of Part M of the regulations, and they will use technical guidance document M, which only provides for visitable housing. It does not mean we will create wheelchair accessible houses or adaptable houses in the future.