Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I go back to the point made earlier about data. We really missed an opportunity. Like all of us, I am not sure how we missed that opportunity to include much better and more detailed questions in the census that would have given us an opportunity to put the data together. Deputy Ó Broin made the point about local authorities and the point was made that when people fill in the housing assessment and renew it every year or two years, depending on the local authority, that information should be gathered. We are a bit late into the learning stream but it is never too late to learn or to implement this data-collecting information so we can plan. This is all about planning. Listening to the witnesses, I think what they are looking for from us is that, when it comes to universal design and making homes for people in wheelchairs, we plan for that now.

A contribution was made earlier about the Government's projected target of delivering 33,000 homes per year for the next God only knows how long. We reckon the figures should be bigger. That is an even bigger issue again. We could have had a percentage of those delivered now. Someone commented on adaptation grants. I was a councillor for years in Cork City Council. There was one adaptation grant for social housing and one for private housing. We are spending a huge amount of money adapting houses. If we had spent a fraction of that on planning and delivery when those houses were being built, it would have saved the country money. Leaving out the humanity of it and looking at it from a financial point of view, planning now for universal design and UD+ or UD++ makes economic, financial sense. More important, for the person involved in makes sense. Ms Lally gave an example of a lady in Mayo. Her life was completely changed. That example shows the huge difference it can make.

Ms Lally spoke earlier about the standards in the UK meeting the needs of disabled people Why we do not have that here? What do we need to do? Is that what we should copy?