asked the Minister for the Environment if he is aware that the Guinness hop store in Rainsfort Street, Dublin 8, which was renovated as a public building at a cost of £200,000 to the Exchequer, has no lift which would provide access for disabled persons to floors above the ground floor; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin Public Building.
16.
The proposed building regulations published earlier this year provide generally for access for the disabled to and within new public buildings. However, these regulations do not as yet have the force of law. The Building Control Bill, which provides for the making of building regulations has completed Second Stage and moves to Committee Stage next and I hope to see it enacted in this session; this will enable the building regulations to be made and given legal force.
However, when publishing the proposed building regulations earlier this year I issued a public statement asking all those concerned with design and construction to have regard to them.
On the question of the Guinness hop store, I have been given to understand that conversion work is not complete and that the building was opened temporarily to house the ROSC exhibition because of a commitment given to do so. I have also been informed that when the ROSC exhibition finishes on 17 November, 1984, the hop store will close to enable the remaining conversion work, which includes facilities for the disabled to circulate internally, to be completed.
Could the Minister indicate what facilities are proposed to be provided in the hop store to enable disabled persons to circulate particularly those in wheelchairs? For instance, is a lift to be provided for them? At the moment, something like 85 per cent of the building is inaccessible to persons confined to wheelchairs.
I am sorry I cannot give the Deputy that information. I am assured that the disabled will be able to circulate through the building when work is completed. I have been given this assurance.
Could the Minister also give us an assurance that buildings being provided in the State at the moment under existing regulations will be required to provide access for the disabled, not simply access to the ground floor but access to all floors where this is necessary?
That would be a very wide question and it would be for the experts who are designing and bringing forward their plans for the building. At this stage I could not say that I can give that undertaking. Naturally, it is up to the designers and architects to follow the building regulations which are being processed through the Dáil so as to enable the circulation of the disabled to those parts of the building which are designed and might be required for their access.
On the question of access for the disabled to buildings which are provided for public access, there is a grave need to ensure that the Department of the Environment are requiring that this access at least be provided. Would the Minister consider that applications where planning permission is being sought for public buildings or buildings for public access would at least be referred to some representative group for the disabled so that the applications could be vetted? In many cases the absence of facilities for the disabled is simply an oversight on the part of the people making the proposals and the planning officials.
The planning process sets out the time limit in which any individual or group of individuals can study plans for any building. I do not think that I could make a regulation that would require that planning procedure to be changed for just a certain category of individuals. Nevertheless, I suggest that should the Deputy wish to read a copy of the building regulations, I will make it available to him and he will see that they are very strict indeed in this area.
Unfortunately, as the Minister said in his reply, the building regulations have not got the force of law at present. It can be some time before——
A question, please. We cannot have a speech.
——they have the force of law and in the interim a considerable amount of building is going ahead. As a temporary measure pending the coming into law of the building regulations, would the Minister not require or request planning authorities to refer major building planning applications to representative organisations of the disabled to see if they meet the requirements of the disabled?
All planning authorities have been made aware of the context of the building regulations and have been asked to take them into account when considering planning applications. I do not think that it will be very much longer before the building regulations come into effect because the Building Control Bill is at Committee Stage and I hope to see all parts of that Bill through the House before the recess. I think the Deputy is unduly concerned about this. We are making every effort to see that building regulations, whether at the level of planning or in the process of law, can be achieved at the earliest possible date. All this has been taken into account.
Deputy Molloy, and then I must pass to the next question.
Have the discussions which were to take place between the officials of the Minister's Department and professional bodies such as architects, engineers etc. with regard to the Building Control Bill been concluded? If so, were they concluded successfully? If not, is it true that they have broken up without any conclusion being reached?
Discussions have taken place between An Foras Forbartha and people within the building industry. Very successful meetings have been held in that respect, explaining and putting forward the contents of the building regulations. I am not aware of any breaking up of any meeting such as suggested by the Deputy. That is not part of the question, but certainly I am not aware of it.
This is going far away from the question. It has nothing to do with the question.
In view of the fact that the Minister seems to be ignorant in this regard I will be happy to send him information on it.