John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Irish Wheelchair Association was founded in 1960 and now has 20,000 members. It is one of our foremost advocacy groups and charities doing tremendous work for people who lead a challenging life when confined and bound to a wheelchair in assisting and supporting them in living full and independent lives. It is hard in this day and age to believe, however, that we still provide funding for the construction of public buildings, spaces, such as car parks and parks, venues and stadiums, that are not adequately wheelchair accessible or friendly.

I thought we had brought to this to an end some years ago. Only this week, the Irish Wheelchair Association, however, published the latest draft of its best practice guidelines for wheelchair access. Will the Leader arrange for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to attend the House at the earliest juncture to debate this issue to ensure these guidelines are embedded in the planning code and regulations? This will not put any additional cost on anyone building privately. However, when we build arts centres, post offices, schools, and sports stadiums, as well as simple facilities such as public toilets in car parks, we should not suffer upon people confined to wheelchairs the further indignity or embarrassment of not being able to access, use freely or enjoy facilities that the rest of us can. It is a simple matter to resolve and one in which we can play a part.

There are also people who still park on kerbs on footpaths and clearly designated disabled parking zones which is a further affront to those confined to wheelchairs. There is no fine too large for someone who parks improperly like that.