Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Universal Design In Building: Discussion

Mr. John Dolan:

To return to the issue of costing, the Chairman used the word "standardisation". There are insiders and outsiders when it comes to costing things. The presumption of the builder or developer is that they can build a given number of standard houses for able-bodied, to use that term, people, but we need costings to be carried out on the basis of whatever the cost is of building a mix of houses for a community in which there will be people who have mobility and other needs. In the airport, there are signs for the persons with restricted mobility service. It is not a free service, but the person who uses it does not pay extra for it. It is a service to allow people who need it to get through the airport. We have to get to a point where people with disabilities are not on the outside, whether that relates to accessible transport, education or anything else. The idea that doing so would cost others extra reflects a society putting the burden on the person who is in trouble in the first instance. As is the case in insurance and other areas, there is community rating, with tailoring done within that. That is the magic, the science or the equation that has to be used here.