People with disabilities continue to face problems
New plans will identify barriers that restrict disability access
It is almost 20 years since accessibility audits to identify “barriers that potentially restrict access for disabled people to the built environment” have been carried out across south Dublin.
However, a proposal is under development by staff at South Dublin County Council to carry out fresh audits across town and neighbourhood centres.
A comprehensive programme of accessibility audits was last carried out across the area in 2007, according to the council’s director of community Elaine Leech.
“The audits used a range of best practice sources at the time, including the Part M Building Regulations, British Standard 8300:2001 (design of buildings and their approach to meet the needs of disabled people) and the experiences of disabled people,” she said.
Ms Leech was responding to a question from Cllr Helen Farrell (Ind), at the council meeting on Monday, July 14, who asked when the last accessibility audits were carried out for local population centres across the county.
She said the audits looked at issues faced by people with a wide range of disabilities, including people with degrees of hearing loss, learning disabilities, facial disfigurement, visual impairment, mental illness or conditions such as arthritis or incontinence, with any actions identified subsumed into work programmes of relevant departments.
“With the recent appointment of a new Equality Officer, the work carried out under this programme is now being reviewed to inform a new equality and access work plan,” Ms Leech continued.
Funding of €100,000 has provided for these works in the budget, along with extra funding for physical works for better accessibility on local footpaths (€400,000), additional accessibility and Disabled Persons Grant (DPG) works for housing tenants (€150,000), and €25,000 contribution for the 2026 Special Olympics.
“The Council’s Equality Officer, Grainne Meehan, is currently developing a proposal for Accessibility Audits to be carried out in SDCC villages and other relevant facilities.
“This work will be brought to the Social, community and Equality SPC for discussion on next steps,” Ms Leech concluded.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.
