Ms Mary Murphy:

Age Action is grateful for the opportunity to speak before the committee about UD in new projects and public realm planning. Age Action is Ireland's leading advocacy organisation on aging and older people.

We advocate for a society that enables all older people to participate and to live full, independent lives, based on the realisation of their rights and equality, recognising the diversity of their experience and situation.

Today I will speak briefly on taking a rights-based approach to universal design; universal design as a means of enabling ageing in place; the affordability of universal design; and the ambition of universal design policies. Age Action takes a rights-based approach to advocating for older persons. Similarly, universal design needs to be understood as a means of guaranteeing people their fundamental rights. There are approximately 48,000 people with dementia in Ireland, and this is expected to double by 2030. Just over one in five persons aged 65 or older is affected by frailty, which means that their body is less able to resist injury or illness. Of those aged 65 and over, 35.2% have a disability and others have mobility issues. The ability of these people to exercise their rights depends on their homes and communities being universally designed. Taking a rights-based approach to universal design means recognising the lived experiences of these older persons and the serious affronts to equality and non-discrimination that their unmet need represents.

When it comes to ageing in place, which is the overwhelming desire among older persons, universal design is key. Universally designed homes are as suitable to raise a young family in as they are to grow old in. Yet, ageing in place also depends on where the home is situated. We know that 40% of people aged 65 or older do not have a driving licence, and 40% of people aged 65 or older live in rural areas with limited transport options. Housing and planning policy must work in tandem with transport policy to implement universal design.

Turning to the affordability of universal design, just over half of all older people have an income in the bottom 40% of society, and half have savings of €5,800 or less. Just over a quarter of employers, managers or higher professionals aged 65 or older experience disability. In contrast, over 35% of manual workers and 42% of unskilled workers aged 65 or older do so. Age Action estimates that 10% of older households cannot afford housing adaptation works to increase accessibility. For many people, the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability are the only option available to make their homes safe and useable. A recent Private Members' motion on these grants highlighted that they are not affordable and that there are associated unacceptable delays. Age Action has heard from older people about feeling sick and wanting to give up when they go through all the effort of applying for these grants, only for nothing to come of it. More people must be entitled to these grants, with a greater proportion of their costs covered. If universal design measures were implemented in the initial construction phase, often there would be no additional cost. Limiting cost barriers to the construction of universally designed homes will in part depend on wider reform of the housing sector to achieve affordability, as well as the introduction of universal design building standards that make it the new construction industry norm.

Finally, Age Action is concerned about low ambition in implementing universal design. One of its advantages is its ability to be mainstreamed. Everyone has a right to move and interact safely and independently not only in their own homes but in the homes of others and in their communities. Universal design promotes positive ageing, but there is no positive ageing without social inclusion. One of the actions of the Housing Options for our Ageing Population policy statement is to ensue that 30% of new housing is universally designed in five years' time. That target is inadequate. Similar to the successful building energy efficiency regulations, building regulations should progressively realise a full implementation of universal design, with which all new buildings must be compliant. These new standards should be matched with mechanisms to ensure they are being met. In the interim, there needs to be education about universal design so people building or buying homes understand its importance. If universal design is not universalised, we will instead have to continuously, arduously and expensively adapt homes to meet the needs of persons whose circumstances we are capable of anticipating based on the lived experience of older people now.