Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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317. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Office of Public Works plans to provide mentoring to other public bodies and publicly-funded agencies under his aegis with regard to improving compliance with statutory duties and accessibility requirements; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21838/21]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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Mentoring of Departments on accessibility will have to be looked at in more detail as there are a number of protocols to be observed and a variety of obligations under the building regulations and legislation requiring compliance. Mentoring is something that the National Disability Authority's own dedicated experts might be asked to coordinate with the Office of Public Works staff on this as a future action. The current position is as follows:

Training in accessibility for current and planned State occupied building stock has been undertaken under the universal access programme since 2010. More recently and predominantly since 2017 a cohort of in house architectural staff have been trained in accessibility auditing. This was done in a series of tranches of 4 or 5 architects and technicians at a time. It takes three full days immersive training with an industry expert, whose company has sufficient expertise and capacity to provide this (on top of having a related baseline of training as an architect, technician or engineer).

Funding would be required for a more comprehensive training programme in the context of a mentoring regime. This would require a co-ordinated approach which  might then need specific priority for remedial works to be proposed, planned and procured. A

mentoring regime is a complex proposition which would require careful

consideration and planning.

This is not without challenges, as our programmes of work are diverse and complex. Resourcing it would have to be focused and rigorous with a specific workshop facilitated initially, and a subsequent network set up, governed and managed under a dedicated OPW expert steering committee.