Measures to make new buildings more accessible for the disabled were announced yesterday by the Minister for the Environment, writes Roddy O'Sullivan.
Mr Dempsey has signed new building regulations that he says will ensure houses built from January of next year can be accessed by the disabled. The regulations will also impose more stringent requirements for access to new non-residential buildings such as workplaces, hotels, restaurants and cinemas.
Representatives of people with disabilities gave the measures a cautious welcome but expressed concern about how they would be policed and the time for implementation. "In this day and age it is reasonable to expect that new buildings should be accessible to all, including the disabled," Mr Dempsey said at the formal publication of the building regulations which he signed into law last Thursday. He announced the new regulations yesterday at a seminar organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in Malahide, Co Dublin.