Councillor slams planning regulator for ‘making it harder to build accessible homes in Dublin’

Labour Cllr Declan Meenagh says he rejects the recommendation of the planning regulator and has lodged a formal Disability Act Complaint against the office.

He also say the recommendation was to ‘weaken language from the draft Dublin City Development Plan which would require developers to make some of their newly built homes comply with Universal Design Standards.’

“As someone who actively campaigned for the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons With Disabilities UN CRPD I know that the right to housing is enshrined in this convention and government bodies should be working to make it easier to build housing for disabled people,” he said.

“Not making it harder. The Office of the Planning Regulator also has an obligation under  * section 42 of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Act 2014.

“I withdrew a previous motion I had drafted which would have further strengthened these standards, because I was advised that there was not enough evidence to justify the change, but I cannot support further erosion of standards for disabled people or for anyone living in an apartment who might acquire a disability.

“Our planning policy needs to make apartment living attractive and building smaller and smaller apartments is failing to provide liveable cities and communities. Universal design means that apartments are of good quality for everyone, not just disabled people.

“The public is losing faith in the planning system. Respect for local communities and local government needs to be at the heart of our planning system and the planning regulator is not respecting this.

According to the councillor, earlier in the year the same office refused to meet Councillors from Dublin City to talk about the awful overconcentration of build to rent apartments and our attempts to have more sustainable developments in the city.

“Instead they are getting in the way and threatening to overturn parts of our plan, so I have no faith in the office to handle this issue properly.”

“I would like to thank my colleagues on Dublin City Council who have backed my motion and I look forward to working with them on delivering more accessible housing in the future.”