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:

Something strikes me from when I was working in the Irish Wheelchair Association back in the 1980s and 1990s. There was a lot of stuff about taxis. It was not necessary for every taxi to be accessible to have an accessible taxi service. The same approach should be looked at here, although I cannot say definitively it can be used. We do not want to stop something sensible and useful being there as a public good for people because it has to be all bells and whistles and inclusive. It is all right once appropriate similar products are available in a neighbourhood or place. Those are just the thoughts off the top of my head. The other thing is, looking at the capacity of technology now compared with ten or 15 years ago, we can challenge the designers a bit to be able to come up with different solutions.