Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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719. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps he is taking to ensure that a sufficient percentage of housing is fully accessible for wheelchair users and not merely visitable; the target number of units; the information available to him on the level of demand for such units; and the steps he will take to improve building and planning regulations in order that a percentage of new builds are fully accessible. [50680/18]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Local authorities are responsible for the provision of social housing in their areas, and, as such, decide on the number and specific types of dwellings to provide in their developments, based on identified need.

One of the key measures achieved in 2016 under the National Housing Strategy for People with a Disability (NHSPWD), which has been extended to 2020, was the establishment of Housing and Disability Steering Groups (HDSGs) in allhousing authority areas, to achieve a coordinated and integrated approach to meeting the housing needs of people with a disability at local level. These are chaired by Directors of Housing in each authority and include HSE and disability representative organisations.

Each HDSG has prepared a local Strategic Plan for its own City/County area, to develop specific local strategies to meet identified and emerging need over the next five years. These Plans, the majority of which are now available on the relevant local authority websites, along with the annual Summary of Social Housing Assessments (SSHA), will allow local authorities to plan more strategically for the housing needs of people with a disability and will support the delivery of accommodation using all appropriate housing supply mechanisms. This is a more targeted and responsive way to meet actual need identified rather than designating a specific percentage or number of new social housing builds that are fully wheelchair accessible. The SSHA counts the number of persons with a physical disability rather than with reference to the need for wheelchair accessibility but, nonetheless, local authorities are aware of the needs of individual housing applicants through the application process.

New buildings and extensions or material alterations to existing buildings must comply with the legal minimum performance standards set out in the Building Regulations 1997 - 2017. In this context, the Building Regulations (Part M Amendment) Regulations 2010, and the accompanying Technical Guidance Document M – Access and Use (2010), which came into effect on 1 January 2012, set out the minimum statutory requirements that a building must achieve in respect of access. The TGDs are available on my Department’s website at .

The requirements of Part M aim to ensure that regardless of age, size or disability:

- new buildings other than dwellings are accessible and usable;

- extensions to existing buildings other than dwellings are, where practicable, accessible and useable;

- material alterations to existing buildings other than dwellings increase the accessibility and usability of existing buildings, where practicable;

- certain changes of use to existing buildings other than dwellings increase the accessibility and usability of existing buildings where practicable; and

- new dwellings are visitable.

Part M of the Building Regulations aims to foster an inclusive approach to the design and construction of the built environment. While the Part M requirements may be regarded as a statutory minimum level of provision, the accompanying technical guidance encourages building owners and designers to have regard to the design philosophy of universal design and to consider making additional provisions, where practicable and appropriate.

Guidance on how to design, build and manage buildings and spaces so that they can be readily accessed and used by everyone, regardless of age, size, ability or disability is available in 'Building for Everyone, A Universal Design Approach', a National Disability Authority (NDA) publication, which may be accessed at .