Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy O'Callaghan put it very well when he said that he is talking not just about housing here but also about the public realm, and that is why I would again refer him to section 46. That puts, and rightly so, an onus on the local authorities in the preparation of their development plans to ensure for persons with disabilities that the disability strategy place is in place, not just for housing but for the public realm and for access. The Deputy has given a good example with regard to access to bus stops and that type of thing. Road design, road layouts and roads legislation would cover that element of it. All of it, I think the Deputy will understand, is not pertinent to just a planning Bill but this section would ensure a local authority has to have that in mind.

Most of us would agree, and certainly from engaging with those with disabilities in my own constituency and with disability groups, which I have done, that there is, in the main, a great improvement in new developments. Where we find there are particular issues is in older estates, retrofitting older housing, and access. The work being done with active travel, access to safer routes to school and all those various elements has greatly improved over a number of years. The obligation to prepare that strategy as part of a development plan is very important, and we will be looking at the development plan cycle in this legislation, to have it more forward-looking, with the proposals around the ten-year plan going forward and a proper review in the middle of that.

To get to the Deputy's point on the environmental impact assessment, if he were to say this was needed with every EIA, he might want to expand on that. If an EIA were needed for a wind farm or any of the different developments we have that are not housing-related, as the Deputy has rightly put, and I have given him one example, I take it he does not believe a disability access certificate would be needed in that instance. We would be getting extremely prescriptive in every single type of application made as to what is in and what is out. My firm belief is that it is much better done in a plan-led approach, and one of the thrusts of this Bill is that we move to that plan-led approach, and that it be part of the objectives of a plan. One of the very strict criteria in that and underpinning that is about including the needs of children, the elderly and persons with disabilities, and I genuinely think that is the appropriate place for it.

We have done a full review of Part B fire regulations and what we can do with existing buildings, and we expect to publish that later this month. We have wide consultation on it and it has been going on for a long number of years, as Deputies may know, going way back to 2011, to see what we can do with our current built environment, how it can be reused and brought back into stock to improve the situation, and to try to unlock the many buildings that are currently unused or that can be converted from commercial property to residential. I expect we will be publishing that review later this month.

There has been engagement on Part M. I have engaged myself last year. Looking at the universal designs that are brought forward in planning decisions at planning authority level, and indeed An Bord Pleanála, it will be seen that a dwelling house in a residential development is far better than it was even a number of years ago in the mid-2000s, and it looks to that universal design.

I understand the sentiment behind the amendments the Deputy has put down. From a building control perspective, if that were to be looked at, further regulations on that would be the better place for it. It is more appropriate to the design of the development plan than having a broad brush approach within the planning Bill, to this or any other matter. One of the principles of the development plan is to ensure we have proper access for people. That liveability Deputy Ó Broin spoke about is underpinned within the development plan of each local authority. Section 46 speaks directly to that.