Thomas Gould (Cork North-Central, Sinn Fein)

As other members stated, one of the few good things to come out of Covid was the expansion of outdoor dining. We see it in every village, town and city. Overall, it is a very positive thing. We still see it, especially in light of the good weather we have enjoyed over the past few weeks. There is a great atmosphere created by outdoor dining. The only issue, as some colleagues mentioned, is that businesses have to be very conscious of people with limited mobility and those with sight issues. We have had a number of situations in Cork, unfortunately. On the whole, businesses have been excellent. A few have not, however. Some of the footpaths, because the city is older, are not suitable for wheelchairs, but people still need to get through the streets. We have also seen a number of changes whereby disabled parking spaces were moved to accommodate on-street dining. It is very important that all disabled parking spaces are restored properly, not just with a sign painted on the ground. We need to see proper dimensions and proper footpath accessibility.

I want to raise another issue that is possibly not for today's discussion. It comes under the Minister's brief in terms of local government. He needs to provide funding for local authorities to carry out accessibility audits and studies. This is part of Government's policy, but it needs to be funded. That would go well with the on-street furniture regime in terms of making sure that it is done properly in order that those with disabilities are able to access our cities, towns and villages.