Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 21 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Universal Design In Building: Discussion
Ms Joan Carthy:
Part M allows for none of that. It allows a person to get in the front door and sit in a sitting room or a kitchen. It does not even really allow a person to go to the toilet. To be blunt, that is where we are at. Consequently, you cannot raise a family, or cook a meal for yourself, a friend or whoever else you have in your house. People take for granted the myriad of things that they can do in their own home. Under Part M of the regulations, wheelchair users cannot do the same things. You can simply exist and sit in a room, and enter and leave the house but that is all that you can do.