Dr. Gerald Craddock:

Our conference will take place in Croke Park on 20 October to which all the committee members are invited. There we will launch a CPD for architects. One of the winners of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland universal design award was the Central Bank, just across the river from here. We have been working very closely with it but also with many of its employees with different abilities. We will launch an interactive e-learning module on 20 October, which could be very useful for the Oireachtas in addressing issues such as acoustics, which has been mentioned here several times, and navigation across the building from the car park right through to the various floors in the building.

The 2014 public procurement directive is now covered by a statutory instrument in Ireland, SI 284 of 2016. All public procurement of parts and services that affect people need to include accessibility as mandatory. We would highly recommend that that statutory instrument be implemented across government. In America in 1991, President George Bush sr. signed the Americans with Disability Act into law. That legislation was a turning point in making products and services accessible in America. It is the reason many of the products developed by Microsoft, Google and others are much more accessible than any products designed in Europe. The committee should advocate that SI 284 be implemented across government and local authorities.