Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

First, I strongly support Deputy O'Callaghan's three amendments. It is an issue that is going to come up regularly. Obviously, there was a very comprehensive review of the Planning and Development Act 2000 and all its subsequent changes. There were certain areas that many of us were hopeful would be addressed. One is the issue of Travellers and the expert group on Traveller accommodation's planning recommendations. There are issues around embodied carbon. There is a whole set of areas where our planning code and our regulation of development plans and housing plans clearly does not meet the needs, in this case, of people with disabilities.

Part of the difficulty here is we keep talking about disability. As the Minister knows, the disability certificate is only for accessibility, not for liveability. We have had presentations in this committee, during the current Oireachtas and its predecessors, from the Irish Wheelchair Association, highlighting that accessibility is no good if you want to live in the building because it does not give you full, free access. There is a certain amount of irony in the Minister suggesting that the review of Part M is the solution to this, given that there is not a review of Part M as I understand it. There has been a request from the Irish Wheelchair Association but, correct me if I am wrong, I do not believe such a review has been initiated. I would welcome it if it were to take place. Therefore, we really do not have universal design for people to live in their homes, and that is before we get to the wider built environment Deputy O'Callaghan mentioned. Regarding the general provisions referenced by the Minister with respect to development plans, and he could have referenced similar sections with regard to housing plans, my understanding is that is not new language. That is transposed from the existing language of the Planning and Development Act 2000.

Here is a very important area which this Bill could have addressed very simply. Deputy O'Callaghan has given one way of doing it and I urge the Minister to reconsider. If, in this once-in-a-generation piece of legislation, we do not ensure the needs of those who are traditionally most excluded from our housing system, whether they be Travellers, people with disabilities, wheelchair users or others, are fully and finally catered for in our planning code and housing plans, then we will have failed them. I urge the Minister to be more open to the sentiment if not the exact wording of Deputy O'Callaghan because it would be a shame if this issue were not addressed in this Bill.