Ms Bernadette Egan:

To get back to Deputy Tully about the financial reasons behind the way buildings are designed and procured, basically many architects want to design universal design, but they are very much confined by the finances. The clients will only go for compliance with building regulations. That is the minimum standard and the benchmark people have to design to. It is mainly in the private sector but obviously in the public sector as well where the financial impact of design is huge. Without the change in building regulations, as Mr. Cunningham said, it is not going to happen, no matter how much wishful thinking we have or how many teachers in universal design we have. If it is not put down in the regulations, then it will not happen, unfortunately.

I wish to confirm what Ms Lally said about the huge misconception about accessibility and what is an accessible building and accessible housing. There is no advertising standard across the board. As you can see on Daft, they have a tick box. Anyone can tick a box. I have actually visited some of these properties and you can barely get in the front door. Some even have steps even though they are supposed to be accessible. People do not understand what accessible is. They do not have the lived experience of the space required to let wheelchair users such as me know how that impacts on moving around in a property or in a house. There is no yardstick we can measure things against, and it is very much up to individuals to decide if their property is accessible, which usually it is not, unfortunately.