Mr. Eoin O'Herlihy:

I will address some of the Senator's queries. For example, in London in 2004, a target was set that 10% of all houses would be wheelchair accessible and that figure has reached approximately 8%. They have gone some way down the line to allowing people choice and offering flexibility for people in the housing market. From 2018 in the UK, as part of its national planning policy framework, there was a requirement on all local authorities to plan a mix of housing based on current and future demographics, market trends, meeting the needs of different groups within the community and including people with disabilities. It now gives all local authorities an onus to identify what targets they would need to put in place for wheelchair-accessible housing, whether it is through voluntary bodies or private developers. This also allows local authorities to put conditions on planning applications and specify what percentage of accessible housing is needed. We can talk about visible, adaptable and fully wheelchair-accessible standards.

The Senator made another point about making public buildings accessible. We mentioned the Equal Status Acts and although we are trying to make buildings accessible, we are also trying to ensure the services provided within those buildings are accessible. That relates to reasonable accommodation and avoiding discrimination towards people with disabilities. We have had a Disability Act since 2005 and it contains a number of key clauses relating only to the public sector, although they are important.

The Senator mentioned complaints and there is a mechanism in the Disability Act whereby every public body, Department and local authority in Ireland must appoint an inquiry officer to deal with complaints from people with disabilities who feel there has been a breach in the Disability Act. When the Disability Act was introduced in 2005, it required that six Departments would create a sectoral plan, with one of those from what is now the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. One of the main elements of that sectoral plan - a ten-year action plan on how accessibility could be improved in Ireland - was the provision to encourage and facilitate access to the appropriate housing and accommodation needs of people with disabilities. We are 16 years on from that but there does not seem to be many complaints being made by people with disabilities that they do not have access to housing. One of the reasons for this is that people are unaware they can make that type of complaint through the provisions of the Disability Act to an inquiry officer in the local authority. It is important we have training and awareness campaigns around accessibility. There was mention of the timeframe for Norway but we have had this provision in place for 16 years so why are we so far behind the curve?