I thank the Vice Chairman and members of the committee for the invitation to today’s meeting to discuss the matters highlighted around accessibility within the built environment in the recently published document by the Irish Wheelchair Association, Best Practice Access Guidelines – Designing Accessible Environments. In particular, I extend my gratitude to Deputy Seamus Healy, who attended a local launch of these guidelines in Thurles and arranged this invitation to allow me to raise before this committee the vitally important issue of access within the built environment.
I would like to introduce my colleagues who worked with Irish Wheelchair Association, IWA, members and staff to develop the third edition of the access guidelines. Dolores Murphy is the IWA’s access and housing officer. Bridget Boyle is the regional access co-ordinator for the eastern region. Vijoy Chakraborty is the IWA’s senior occupational therapist. Additionally, I would like to recognise the IWA staff in the Visitors Gallery, who worked on developing this edition of the access guidelines and the large number of IWA members and staff who are following this session online in one of the IWA’s 57 resource outreach centres.
The Irish Wheelchair Association was founded in 1960 and is a national organisation dedicated to the achievement of full social, economic and educational integration of people with disabilities as equal, independent and participative members of the community. The IWA has a nationwide network of 20,000 members and employs in excess of 2,000 staff to support members to live independently within their local community. The question of access for people with limited mobility and wheelchair users is the single biggest issue to impact on individual lives. Without good accessibility, the ability of people to live independently and to be treated as equal is severely impacted on.
In 2009, the IWA was given a mandate by its membership to develop the first edition of the best practice access guidelines. A second edition, incorporating updated standards and new guidelines, was published in 2010. Since 2010 we have undertaken a number of initiatives on access and worked with many local authorities during the review of Part M of the building regulations to extend the IWA's best practice access guidelines. We have also worked on many high-profile builds over recent years, the most notable being the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road and Terminal 2 at Dublin Airport. Other examples of our work include the regeneration of Grafton Street in Dublin and Portlaoise hospital.
There have, therefore, been many successes for the IWA in improving access within the built environment. However, these improvements have been largely piecemeal, on individual projects and where the IWA was invited to participate on building projects because we became aware of the building project at an early stage or due to personal contacts that existed between the organisation undertaking the building project and the IWA. The objective from this point on is to encourage systemic change to ensure that good access is at the core of planning for new builds and on building projects to renovate existing buildings.
To develop our access guidelines, a number of guiding principles were followed. We recognised that there are minimum standards for accessibility set out in the building regulations, primarily Parts B, K and M, and that there are standards recommended within the technical guidance documents that accompany the building regulations. The IWA’s best practice access guidelines build upon these minimum standards to deliver best practice in accessible design. The IWA also recognises that other bodies are working on accessibility matters, including the National Disability Authority, NDA, and the building control sections within the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and local authorities. The IWA’s access guidelines utilise and build upon the work of these entities in a collaborative manner. The IWA recognises that accessibility is an issue across the world and each country has guidance and standards for all aspects of access within the built environment. The IWA’s guidelines use the highest level of access standards that exist elsewhere and within Ireland to ensure that our standards represent the best practice by international standards.
We recognise there are legacy issues in addressing existing buildings with poor levels of access, and these issues require a strategic approach to incentivise access upgrades. By adopting these principles, we ensure that our work on accessibility constantly builds upon the work of others, thereby avoiding duplication or competition. The objective of improving access to the built environment can only be achieved when all parties work together.
By working with external organisations on various building projects, advising IWA members and statutory bodies and supporting commercial entities on access matters, the IWA identified new areas that would benefit from being incorporated into our access guidelines, such as guidance for sports stadia and for once-off outdoor events. A consultation process took place with more than 1,000 IWA members, local authorities and other disability organisations to identify what additions and updates were required to our access guidelines. This process led to the publication of the third edition of our access guidelines.
The guidelines were launched on 4 July 2014, Independence Day in the US, at the Aviva Stadium because the IWA worked with that stadium's architects and management on gaining the highest levels of accessibility for our members, wheelchair users and others with impaired mobility. The Aviva Stadium has 120 wheelchair accessible spaces located at different viewing points, all providing an uninterrupted view of soccer and rugby games. Since the national launch of the guidelines in July, a number of local launches have taken place in 26 locations throughout the country and attendees included Members of the Oireachtas, local authority councillors and staff, IWA members, architects, builders and HSE officials. In total, approximately 1,000 people attended the local launches and this initiative has further raised awareness of access issues. The next step is to ensure that the third edition of the IWA's access guidelines is used to impact further on standards of accessibility within the built environment. This can only be achieved by ensuring all new legislation and public policy recognises the importance of good access, ensuring planning decisions reflect the highest standards of accessibility as outlined in the guidelines, and supporting organisations and individuals in developing best practice building plans when preparing a disability access certificate application.
I will now address the matter of the assistance of the Joint Committee on Health and Children. We are here today to ask the committee to support our work by endorsing the IWA's best practice access guidelines and recording its support for our work in this regard. Committee members can be champions for the highest levels of accessibility when discharging their duties as Deputies, Senators, public policy-makers and legislators. Committee members can ensure that any new building projects within the health sector utilise the guidance and standards detailed in the IWA's best practice access guidelines. They can also propose a business tax incentive scheme to the Government for access upgrades to existing buildings. This would be similar to the home renovation scheme announced in the 2013 budget.
In concluding this opening statement, I would like to restate my sincere gratitude to the committee for its invitation to make a presentation on the access guidelines and accessibility in the built environment. I acknowledge that creating an environment with the highest level of accessibility is a long-term objective, but this can only be achieved by undertaking short and medium-term actions. All members of society must be aware of the importance of good accessibility and all new legislation and public policy must be access-proofed. We need a continued drive to raise the minimum standards of accessibility to the level articulated in the third edition of the access guidelines.
I thank the members listening to this opening statement and we are happy to take any questions.