Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his response. This amendment goes beyond housing, although housing is a key part of it. The Minister quoted section 46(2)(a), which deals with the preservation of amenities, facilities and services to meet social community, recreational and cultural requirements. There is a mention of persons with disabilities on page 106 of the legislation. I am sure they are also mentioned elsewhere. Yet, it really does not address what I am putting forward at all; there is some mention of some requirements to include the needs of people with disabilities.

In these amendments, I am proposing that where an EIA is required, an AIA should also be required. I do not see why that should be addressed in building control legislation. Could the Minister clarify when he is planning on bringing forward changes to the building control legislation to address the needs of people who are disabled?

Housing is a key component of this, but it fundamentally goes beyond that. We see how all around Ireland, even in how local authorities maintain accessibility to the public realm, there are ongoing issues for people who are disabled and who should be able to access public spaces with the same ease as everybody else. Yet, because of a lack of consideration in planning, a lack of inclusion in planning and because of the way public spaces are planned and maintained, they are excluded.

I will give one example from my constituency. There is a housing estate where people who are disabled live. These individuals use wheelchairs. To access a bus within the housing estate, they have to take a route that may take them six, seven or eight minutes to negotiate. If it were designed differently, access would take 20 seconds. This is the case for people who do not use wheelchairs.

This goes across planning but I am using the example of a local authority as a public and State body, and because of the way it has gone about things, designed things and maintained the infrastructure, it seems to think it is okay to continue to do that in a way that excludes people or puts them at a severe disadvantage with regard to access. I do not think the status quoin any shape or form has worked. The legislation is deficient. The 2000 Act was deficient and this Bill is deficient. If the Minister is not going to accept my amendments, I would like to hear what he is going to do to address this. Specifically, when is building control standards legislation going to be brought forward? Is it going to be in the lifetime of this Dáil that the Minister intends to address these issues in building control standards legislation?