Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 27 September 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Accessibility: Discussion

Ms Anne Graham:

As Mr. Doocey has not given a score, I am not going to put a number on it. We acknowledge - and we have acknowledged - that we make our best efforts to try to ensure we build universal design into our new infrastructure. I would certainly give us a high score in that area. In all the plans we do now we try to ensure we get a universal design, where it is possible to do. The challenge is to get the needs of all users met when we have a multiplicity of users on our services and infrastructure. The challenge then is on the older infrastructure and getting that up to the level it needs to be at. That is down to funding it, programming it and getting as much of it done as quickly as possible. That will always be a lower score. Much of it is not within our control but down to how much funding Government makes available to be able to deal with this infrastructure. There is no doubting the mindset and all we try to do is to meet our obligations under the regulations to ensure that as we are thinking about our services and planning for the future that we include those who have a disability in those plans with respect to consultation and also to what the results are with the infrastructure.

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