Margaret Murphy O'Mahony (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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343. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department's website is accessible to persons with a disability; if the accessibility of this website is regularly reviewed, to take account of new and emerging technologies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21680/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s website, www.environ.ie, has recently been redesigned and was re-launched on 22 February 2016. As part of the redesign and re-engineering process, a strong emphasis was placed on the key areas of usability and accessibility. In line with best practice, Universal Design principles were applied across the project with the aim of ensuring consistent compliance with international standard Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

As part of the ongoing management of the website content, my Department produced a web style guide for internal editors which contains instructions on how material, including images, data tables and graphs, are presented so that they are accessible to those using assistive technology. It is my intention to arrange for an independent accessibility assessment of the new website within the first year of its re-launch.

A separate project is currently underway to engage the services of a suitably qualified company to update the website of Met Éireann, which is a division of my Department. It is intended that the upgraded website will also be accessible up to Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.

In addition, my Department has a number of other small external sites that have been set up for various purposes at different times and, while not all of these meet accessibility guidelines currently, work is underway to consider how best to address this issue.

Agreement has been reached on a new EU Directive on the accessibility of Public Sector websites, which will require Public Sector websites and mobile applications to achieve specific accessibility standards. My Department will consider any additional changes required to achieve the required standards when this Directive is transposed into national legislation.