There is no doubt that all of us will very readily and easily make verbal commitment to the disabled. There is nobody I know of who will not verbally express their commitment to that group. Indeed, commitment to the disabled has been made in many fora at many levels. But in 1981 a resolution of the Council of European Communities and representatives of Governments of member states decided that member states agreed "to continue and, if possible, intensify their measures to promote the economic and social integration of handicapped people in order to enable them to make a productive and creative contribution to society, and in particular to ensure that due account is taken in the development of policies affecting the living and working environment of the handicapped". They also agreed — and this is extremely important — that there was a definite need to remove barriers to full participation of handicapped people in society.
It is about barriers that I want to talk today and it is about physical barriers that I am talking. Physical barriers can have a greater handicapping effect than the disability itself. Physical barriers to social life, to cultural life, to education, to full administrative facilities and to all elements of total citizenship work against the handicapped. There is a need immediately for legislation to be put in place that will ensure that in all future public buildings there will be access for the disabled, that the access will not be merely a gesture to the disabled but that it will be the law of the land.
Two years ago a GAA centre was built at great expense in Carrickmacross in my own constituency. There were no access facilities put in at building stage and the cost of rectifing this was £30,000. It took the efforts of a local committee, led by two excellent leaders of this pioneering group on access for the disabled, Francie Cassidy and Bridget Boyle, to ensure that access was provided. My point to the Minister is that the cost at the outset would have been minimal. Minimum costs would make all public buildings accessible at construction stage. Now we depend on the sensitivity of architects and planners to ensure that there is access.
I would put it to the Minister also that footpaths should be dished. Public buildings should, according to the law of the land, have necessary access. I am advised by technical personal — and I double checked it this morning that it would take very little cost at construction and planning stage to put in access for the disabled. The Minister will know that often after the erection of a public building there is a pile of unused concrete. That could easily build a ramp and provide access. I am confident that the Minister will not be negative in his response to this appeal. I urge him to be positive and to commit himself to legislation at the first available opportunity.
I will give two practical examples that could be repeated throughout Ireland. There is a swimming pool in Drogheda. There is a pool side hoist, but there is no access to the pool from outside. There is no access to the changing rooms for disabled people. A survey of this town was done, but the pattern repeats itself throughout the country. In the very same town a post office was built two years ago. There was no access for the disabled arranged. This is a contemporary building. These examples repeat themselves right throughout the country. We need greater intergration of the handicapped and disabled people. We should be proud of the way we treat our handicapped and take the necessary steps to give us that pride and do something about it.
I would put it to the Minister and to the House that we should not need pressure groups to ensure that we have access for the disabled. We should not need people of the calibre of those I mentioned earlier to ensure that access is provided for the disabled. Automatically, at planning and construction stages of buildings access for the disabled should be included and it is my contention that that would cost the minimum. It is my further contention that, after a while, it would happen with great ease and be almost an automatic process.
All people need is to have their consciousness heightened on the issue. It is wrong for us to assume that a local GAA club, a local swimming pool committee or a local community centre committee will automatically think of the need for access for the disabled. In a number of cases they will think of it — and, when they do, it should be applauded — but it is wrong to leave it to their personal discretion, to leave it to chance. It should be part of the law of the land. That is the kind of recommendation that was built into the European Community's social legislation in 1981, as I cited earlier.
I suggest to the House it is a terrible crime that we have not included in our national legislative programme such provisions in 1991. My esssential request to the Minister this evening is that not only should he verbally — and that is important — exhort all community groups, all local authorities, all Government groupings to ensure that there is access to buildings under their control, but that legislation be put in place to insure that this is done. Until we do that I do not believe any of us can look the handicapped or disabled straight in the face and say we have a commitment to them. Until we put the legislation in place our commitment is only verbalising and has no basis in reality. I request the Minister to act now with legislation and to ensure that all buildings in future be so adjusted. He should also ensure that public pathways are dished and that all public buildings have access.
